Whispers of the Dead Lords
by Martyr Logarius
Summary: Lily Potter, Harry and Ginny's youngest child, heads off to her first year at Hogwarts, hopes of a future of love and ambition at hand. But more than just school, boys, and the trials of growing up will challenge her: A lost mystery has stirred from a long rest in the years since Voldemort's final defeat - and evil abhors a vacuum. Hogwarts again will be a magnet for trouble.
1. Prologue: The Last Follower

_**Twenty-one years have passed since Lord Voldemort's final defeat at Hogwarts, and the wizarding world since has enjoyed quiet stability. Lily Potter, youngest child of Harry and Ginny, has watched her two older brothers head off to Hogwarts and eagerly awaited her own opportunity – but as Lily takes her first step in her formal magical education, an ancient horror awakens from its forgotten slumber.**_

 _ **Lily faces the trials and tribulations of boys, grades, and school trouble as Hogwarts both tantalizes and troubles her, but as part of the magical community, she'll have a part to play in the unfolding of a dark plan long in the making. The cruelest wizards of the modern age, Grindelwald and Voldemort, may be dead, but some horrors have no qualms about shattering the wizarding world's fragile peace. Some horrors know nothing of humanity, and Hogwarts, again, will host a struggl** **e between good and evil.** _

* * *

**Prologue**

* * *

 **October 7, 1964**

 **Teutoburg Forest, Germany**

"This place reeks. Smells of…earthworms. Old cabbage. And…ah. I can't place that other smell."

Mitchell Serrett rolled his eyes. _Poor excuse for an Auror_. He rubbed a swath of gray hair out of his eyes, twirled his wand around his fingers, and crunched a red, dry leaf under his boot. His robes caught on the ocean of twigs littering the forest floor, and he wrenched them up in frustration.

"How would you even describe the smell of earthworms?" Mitchell snorted. "This place is making you delusional. Three days tromping around the German wilderness does that. If the office just let us Apparate somewhere decent to shower every night at least…"

His partner, a thin, lanky man at least six and a half feet tall and covered with a mop of blonde hair, looked away into the thick treeline. "It's like the forest's just remembering how to be alive. All this color and everything's so still."

"It's autumn. Everything's like this in autumn."

Mitchell preferred running into Gellert Grindelwald himself in this forest over spending another hour tromping about with Patrick Theirin, pursuing traces of magic on the hunt of a sorcerer on the run. When the Auror office had given him a partner for this assignment and told him he was an up-and-coming star, he'd figured he'd be getting some brash hothead. Instead he'd gotten a grade-A weirdo. _Recruiting standards these days._

But what did he know? He'd just fought Grindelwald's supporters back when the most evil wizard of the modern era had been in power. Now that he was on the tail of Grindelwald's last known living supporter, things had changed. Spectacular. Another day and he'd start to sound like some old codger. _In my day, laddie…_

"You could at least keep your wand out," said Mitchell. He scanned the trees, his eyes running over leaves yellow and red, tracking dead twigs and listening for the sound of something other than the hundredth squirrel trotting about a rotten log. "We tracked him a kilometer to the south this morning. He's around here. Bleeding – he couldn't have gotten much farther. Something attacked him."

Patrick frowned, picked up a twig, and glanced at the rivets in the wood as if they'd spring to life and attack him at any moment. "Grindelwald's last supporter getting caught off guard in the middle of bum-rut nowhere?"

"Supposed to be sylvans in this forest."

"Grindelwald's last supporter getting caught off guard in the middle of bum-rut nowhere by a sylvan?"

"They're dark creatures. They can take a man down. But more about us. The fugitive's a killer. Twelve wizard murders during Grindelwald's heyday, and countless more since then? If he's willing to run off from Britain here to the continent, he's willing to fight for his life. He'll fight us."

Mitchell's partner kept shaking his head, as if the two Aurors had missed something, something more dangerous, something more mysterious than Alexius Lydden. Lydden had been a faithful supporter of Grindelwald twenty years back, and when the Ministry of Magic had found him hiding in Cornwall a month ago, he'd taken off for points south. Another several weeks and they'd tracked him here – and Mitchell and Patrick were on the hunt. Take him in – however it had to be, dead or alive. That was the goal.

So what was irking Patrick so much? Earthworms and old cabbage?

A gust of wind sounded off a percussion chorus across the forest. Patrick held out his hand to stop his partner, raised his head, and glanced around the forest canopy. "Something's here."

"Yeah, the wind. Everyone's dramatic these days, sheesh. Even the Muggles, with their Cold War –"

"It's not the wind. It's Lydden."

Patrick ran through a batch of trees and out of sight. _Dammit_ , thought Mitchell, clutching his wand and hurrying after his partner. _Idiot's going to sprain his ankle on a molehill or something_. If they ran into Grindelwald's last supporter, the idiot wouldn't give himself away. Mitchell clawed a branch out of his way, emerging into a forest clearing. A rushing stream cut through the middle of the space, clear water bubbling up in white bursts across slippery black rocks. A pair of ptarmigans darted through the underbrush away from the other side of the bank, their brown feathers flying in a flurry of motion before disappearing into the camouflage of the autumn forest in an instant. High above in the canopy, a northern harrier cried out a shrill warning.

At the bank of the stream stood Patrick – and five meters away from him lay a short man with wild orange hair, his chest heaving, his face lined and tired, his brow furrowed. He looked up at the young Auror with an expression of pure loathing, his hands clenched into fists, his wand obviously missing. Mitchell stopped, torn between feeling impressed and shocked at his partner's discovery and ready to jump into action to subdue the target. There he was, Alexius Lydden, unarmed, on his back, at their mercy, outnumbered. Grindelwald's last major supporter. It couldn't be this easy.

"What're you doing down there?" Mitchell chortled, hurrying up to Patrick and aiming his wand at Alexius. The dark wizard clutched his side, blood leaking out from his abdomen and staining his gray robes crimson. "Trying to crawl away from us?"

"He's got no wand," Patrick breathed.

Mitchell laughed. _Days of tromping around the woods for this_. It didn't get any easier. "Got something to say for yourself, Alexius? You look like a wreck."

The dark wizard licked his lips, grimaced, and clutched his hand tighter to his wound. "You idiots."

"Mad?" Mitchell said, smirking. "The law never quits. Where did you think you were going to go after murdering that Muggle family in Falmouth? Bit obvious, perhaps?"

"Arrogance got you killed," Alexius gasped. His wound was paining his every breath. "Isn't your partner supposed to be the hothead? Every story like this the young Auror is the brash one. You this eager to make your mark, old man? Eager enough to go to the grave?"

Patrick waved his wand at him. "No one's dying. You're coming back to England with us."

Alexius shook his head, a painful grin spreading across his lips. A vein bulged in his forehead, and he pulled at his hair with his loose hand. "None of us are leaving here alive, pup. Not you, not me, not daddy here."

"You gonna kill us?" Mitchell scoffed. "With what? Where's your wand? I think Gellert would've been mighty displeased if you'd lost your weapon, hm?"

Something struck Mitchell as off about this as he boasted. Every time he'd hunted Grindelwald's supporters in the past, they'd put up a tough fight, wounded or not. Alexius in particular had shown no regard for human life during his villainous run. Even at the mercy of two Aurors, why give up? He couldn't be this cowardly knowing that a life term in Azkaban awaited him. Did he really think the Dementors a preferable option to death?

"You have no idea what you walked into," Alexius breathed. "I didn't either at first. He's going to come back and finish me off, and then he'll get rid of you two, too."

"Who?" Patrick asked.

"The gray one. Gray skin. Like a corpse. He's coming back. You're in too deep now. Your wands are useless at this point. Pray to some heathen gods if you have them. It's your only chance."

Mitchell was inclined to grab the man and Apparate away right now, but just as he thought to say something to his partner, the wind rustled again. _Woosh!_ It didn't feel natural this time, but like a funnel, a cyclone directed towards somewhere across the riverbank. Leaves swirled and spiraled in a kaleidoscope of color. The harrier took off from the uppermost branches, beating its wings as hard as possible to escape into the skies.

Patrick backed up but kept his wand aimed at Alexius. "There's someone else here."

"Stay here," Mitchell whispered, his wand out and aimed at the forest across form the stream. "Make sure he doesn't move a muscle."

"Don't worry, Auror!" cried Alexius. It was more of a taunt than anything. "Dead men can't run!"

Mitchell stepped over the slippery rocks, his footing slipping on the last one as he caught himself with a hand and crept into the opposite woods. Leaves as far as the eyes could see – leaves, trees, autumn everywhere. Then – something. Motion. Mitchell had trained his whole professional career to pick out the little things like this, and he ducked behind a tree while aiming his wand downrange.

"Who's there?"

He received no response. Instead, a green blast exploded from the brush, and Mitchell dodged behind his tree just in time to evade it. The curse zipped past him, and when he looked up, he saw energy coursing across Alexius Lydden. Patrick had dodged to the side. The mark was dead – but not by their hand.

"Cover!" Mitchell shouted, rolling behind a downed stump nearby and training his wand into the thick brush.

He'd moved just in time to see a flash of white light in the brush, hear a loud _crack_ , and look back to see Patrick dodge to the side just in time to evade another green blast coming in from the opposite side of the forest clearing. As Mitchell turned to face the new threat – _were there two of them_? – he spotted something emerging from the forest down the stream from Patrick. It seemed a gray blob from here, like a man but huge, towering, a behemoth, its skin mottled and the color of cement. If the enemy – man, beast, whatever – had hair or clothes Mitchell couldn't make it out.

It clearly wasn't in the mood for negotiating.

Mitchell raised his wand to engage, but a loud _snap!_ from behind distracted him. He turned his head, and there it was.

Whether it was a dark creature or some creation – or something else entirely – Mitchell didn't know. The _thing_ strolled out of the forest ahead of him at a leisurely pace, its arms swinging in lazy arcs by its side. It was towering, at least ten feet tall. It wasn't remotely human, but instead seemingly made of the forest itself – earth, wood, and bone, from its clawed feet to its wide, sloping shoulders, to the talons that tipped the dinner plate-sized hands at the end of its bony arms. Worst of all was the beast's head. It didn't have a face at all, rather a black void at the center of a skeletal ring of cheekbones and jaw. A pair of long, milky, bony protrusions mounted the top of its cranium, like antlers but sinister, angular, and demonic.

It stopped in its tracks a few seconds after Mitchell spotted it. The beast turned slowly towards him, its body and limbs still, its head twitching, a revenant's puppet jittering on ethereal strings. Whether it spotted him by unseen eyes or by some unknown magical force Mitchell didn't know, but he knew very well when it aimed one of its talon-tipped hands at him and pointed with its index finger.

It pointed at _him._

The beast lumbered forward.

He couldn't stay here. Mitchell spun about to relocate just as he saw his partner hit by a green blast. Patrick twirled in the air, his head rolling about, his face blank as he hit the riverbank, still. "Stupefy!" shouted Mitchell, firing a red lance at the gray figure.

No effect. His stunner glanced off of the enemy, shooting away into the forest as Patrick's killer twirled away into a gleam of white light. Mitchell shot a look towards Patrick and Alexius – _dead_ , _both_ – before taking off at a sprint. It had all gone to hell. Mitchell dashed away, his thoughts in chaos, his mind ablaze. His partner dead, his target dead, something, _something_ , all around him. He couldn't think straight. He could only run.

He rounded a tree as a heavy object exploded behind him, showering his legs with needles and darts. Mitchell tripped and fell. He vaulted over a log on the way, getting back on his feet in an instant and sending a pair of stunners into the woods at different directions. Whatever he was up against, it had home turf and a decisive advantage in power. The only hope he had was to keep fighting, praying for luck to swing his way. Auror tricks wouldn't be much good now.

Mitchell rounded a tree and sprinted into a small clearing. Just as he crossed the treeline, a spindly grip grabbed him around the neck.

He found himself face-to-face with terror. Oblivion glared at him from inches away. Waves of black energy coursed around the edges of the beast's void of a face, washing up against the skeletal rim of the creature's head. The beast dug its talons into Mitchell's neck, and he couldn't so much as think up a spell in defense as panic flooded his mind. The beast screamed, roared, _wailed_ , its brooding, mournful cry of pain and anger spilling into Mitchell's very mind.

It clenched its fist. Mitchell felt a blinding pain in his neck, and all was black.

* * *

 **July 29, 2019**

 **Ottery St. Catchpole, England**

James Sirius Potter woke up, his stomach queasy, his head aching. Sweat dotted his bedsheets, and something rustled outside his bedroom in the hallway. Probably Lily. She had a habit of waking up in the middle of the night now, anxious about her first year at Hogwarts. He'd teased her about it, but he heard her more and more – and now it wasn't just her waking up at night. Now he was waking up too.

It'd been a strange dream. James had been in the Forbidden Forest, running from…what? From something, something that lurked in the recesses of his mind, laughing, taunting. He'd sprinted to the edge of the forest, Hogwarts's towers in sight, when something had grabbed him. The wind had coalesced all around him in a great cyclone, and he'd seen…nothing. Nothing.

Just a dream. _Just a dream, that's all_ , James told himself, pulling the sheets back over his chest and casting a look towards his door. _Go to bed, Lily_ , he thought. _Stop bothering me_.

He had his dreams to bother him about the upcoming year, and that was enough. He'd be in his fifth year, and prefect letters hadn't come in yet. The possibility that he might receive the honor – _yikes_ , not sure about that – haunted him, and then there were his siblings. Albus would be in his third year, and his younger brother was enough of a handful. Then Lily would be starting school…and James could just hear his mother's orders. _They're your brother and sister. You're the oldest. They look up to you, especially Lily. Look after them_.

For some reason, his dream of the forest came back to him right then. James shuddered, cast one last look towards his bedroom door, and turned over in his bed.

* * *

 _ **Thanks for reading, everyone! This is the first chapter in what's to be a long story – both the coming-of-age story of Lily Potter, youngest child and only daughter of Harry, and the story of a number of villains coming together in the power vacuum of the Ministry of Magic's post-Voldemort days. With Dumbledore and Voldemort dead and Harry the chief of the Aurors, a lull has fallen over the wizarding world – and an evil that goes back millennia, back to the first days of civilization and magic itself, has arrived to take advantage of peace's weakness. Where Voldemort and Grindelwald sought the purity of wizard blood and strength to dominate the world, I aim to explore a different sort of evil, a horror that can be both derided and justified, defended and attacked. In the world of Harry's children and the next generation, the lines between good and evil blur.  
**_

 _ **I plan for** **t** **he bulk of the story to be told through Lily's eyes as she grows up in Hogwarts's halls, but I'll flash from time to time to other goings-on around the magical (and every now and then, non-magical) world as the broader story builds. Friendship, drama, adventure, even romance all come together throughout. Aiming for a pretty long story; somewhere between five and eight books depending on how much of my original storyboard I decide to cut down as the story progresses (all books going to be in this thread so you don't have to run from link to link.)**_

 _ **Pertinent disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns all properties of the Harry Potter world. Rated T for violence, horror, and themes. Criticisms, comments, suggests, lay 'em on! I welcome all feedback. I am taking slight liberalities with the Harry Potter universe, but don't worry: Most of what you know and love, including Harry, the Weasleys, Hermione, and the HP universe that left off at the end of Deathly Hallows, shall continue here.**_


	2. Questions in the Storm

_Pap. Pap. Pap._

Blotchy tears muddled Lily Potter's bedroom window. Summer rain had come down hard for at least an hour, turning the fields outside into mud, the gravel walk up to the Potter house now an earthworm-dotted stream. A bolt of lightning flashed far in the distance, lighting up the early morning for a brief moment before the pre-dawn darkness plunged the world outside back into black. Thunder rumbled, low, distant, delayed, a sullen warning that the storm had only just arrived.

Lily felt a knot in her stomach. She slumped back down in her bed, listening to the growing pitter-patter of the rain as she fumbled with a flashlight – or "the Muggle thing," as she'd called it to her father. "Isn't this a Muggle thing?" she'd asked him as a six year-old five years earlier, trying to find the wand in the flashlight when he'd first found her hiding in a blanket during a particularly vicious thunderstorm.

"Some Muggle things are brilliant," he'd told her. "Just click the button when it's dark. See? Light whenever you need it, and without a wand. Besides, it's a lot better than dealing with candles all the time. You can't even try to burn down the house with this."

Left out was the implied _like your cousin almost did at Uncle Ron's house_. Lily had figured out a while ago that her mother's insistence that they never host family get-togethers were influenced heavily by her cousin Hugo Weasley's destructiveness.

Thunder rumbled once more, and Lily shot a glance over her shoulder. Light or not, she still didn't like thunderstorms.

She flipped onto her stomach, pushed her long, wild red hair out of her face, and aimed the flashlight at a thick book resting on her fluffy purple pillow. Bathilda Bagshot clearly hadn't considered eleven year-olds when writing _A History of Magic_ : Lily felt her attention slipping off to everything else but the jumble of words on the pages in front of her. _In the decade before the First Wizarding War, European Auror Offices, in Britain, Sweden, and Germany in particular, suffered a rash of disappearances in the field. These have often been explained as early murder victims of Lord Voldemort before his first rise to power, but no conclusive evidence has ever been pieced together, nor have any bodies or even signs of death ever been discovered…_

Ugh. If only the Sorting Ceremony didn't require a test on this stuff. Lily felt her stomach clench again as she thought about her brother James's laugh when he'd told her about the Sorting. "Better start reading. You're given two tests in front of the whole student body, one on what you can recite from _A History of Magic_ , one on how you can combat something of the Dark Arts – it changes every year. I'm not allowed to tell you anything more though, sorry. You just have to be prepared."

"You weren't prepared!" Lily had protested at this revelation. "You spent the whole summer before your first year shooting fireworks with Rose!"

James laughed away her concerns. "You weren't paying attention. Fine. Don't listen to me. But I'm really going to laugh when you fail and end up in Hufflepuff – unless you get started."

Well, he couldn't accuse her of being lazy. Lily yawned, rubbed her soft brown eyes, and started again on the next page just as she heard her father's voice out in the hall. Getting up in a flash, Lily crept towards the door, careful not to make a sound, clicking off her flashlight to make doubly certain she wouldn't be discovered awake and eavesdropping on the rest of her family at this hour.

" – it just came in," Lily heard her father saying, "a minute ago or two. Old Ed Fawcett got caught up in something last night. He's –"

Lily's mother interjected, "I know. Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures and all that at the Ministry – why's that even bother you? That's nothing to do with the Auror office."

"No, real stupid thing. The way I heard it, he had a call from the Forbidden Forest – yeah, Hogwarts – about a wyvern. Why he bothered to go out in the middle of the night's beyond me, but he hasn't shown up since in what should have been an easy scoop. I don't even know why the Minister wants me in, but he does. Sorry, Ginny. I can't tell him no."

"Is this something Hagrid dug up?" Lily's mother said, her voice turning reproachful. "Wyvern, that's up his alley. Dragons, spiders, seems like the right thing…"

"I dunno. I guess I'll find out."

"Harry, you really can't just tell them to send someone else? For something stupid like this? It's your birthday, and with the kids going back to school soon…Lily starting her first year…"

Lily bit her lip. She hated when her parents talked about her like this, not knowing that she'd gotten good about listening in on private conversations that concerned her. It was as if her being the youngest – and James and her other brother, Albus, already being at Hogwarts – had reinforced her status as the baby of the family. Even the little things hurt. _Don't do that, James, you're setting a real bad example for your sister_. _Albus, really. In front of your sister?_ Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione didn't treat Hugo this way, even though he was the younger of two siblings. Lily didn't need protection.

She pressed her ear to her door to hear the rest of the conversation. "Should I check in on him?" her mother was saying. "Ed's just a kilometer or so away."

"No, don't worry about it," her father answered without missing a beat. "It's probably nothing anyway. Bet I'll be back by this afternoon. Then we can do birthday whatever."

"Alright. Fishy. Just be careful."

Lily heard her parents kiss, scrunched up her face, and retreated back to her bed and Bathilda Bagshot. Her father's position as an Auror always sounded interesting in theory, but in practice, Lily had come to anticipate this sort of thing – calls in the early morning or the middle of the night for something fishy that turned out to be nothing at all. Somebody stumbled across an angry rock troll, somebody inflated a carrot into the size of a mansion and reported it as a dark wizard's doing, somebody got into a fight with the Muggle law enforcers – please, or whatever Dad had called them – and blamed it on evildoers. Lily was old enough to know all about her mother and father's reputation and what they'd done to defeat the evil wizard Voldemort, but that was ancient history. Now the mundane ruled.

It didn't help that old man Fawcett was a bit strange. The Fawcetts - now just Fawcett, singular - were one of four wizarding families in Ottery St. Catchpole, along with Lily and her family, her grandparents, and her Uncle Percy. Maybe it was because Edward Fawcett was the only one in the neighborhood without a connection to the Weasley family, maybe it was because he was north of seventy and losing all of his hair despite every magical concoction in the book, maybe it was because he lived alone and distrusted "those Muggle kids in the village, shoving their faces into their telly-fones while they walk," but Lily had always figured him as off his rocker. Apparently the Ministry of Magic disagreed by keeping him as the senior undersecretary of the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, but that was the fuddy-duddies for you.

Bathilda Bagshot must have put Lily to sleep sometime, because she found herself waking up to a heavy downpour. The rain had picked up as the lighting had slacked, and the sky had devolved into a gray nebula of rain and angry, flat cloud cover.

That didn't stop her brothers from coming up with ideas for the day at the breakfast table, however.

"Perfect practice weather," James said while ripping apart a kipper in the Potters' kitchen. Their mother had left to stop in with Aunt Hermione for the morning, leaving the three children alone to handle the house. "Al, come on. If you're really trying to make the team this year, you'll have to face the elements. Gryffindors don't shy away from a little rain."

"There was lighting last night," Al said, inspecting a muffin as if it'd disappear in his hands. After ensuring that it wasn't actively escaping, he adjusted his glasses, frowned and pulled the muffin apart. "You're going to light my broom on fire. We'd be out all day anyway with the snitch."

James snorted. "Exactly it! You want to be our Seeker, you get the snitch in the worst climates. Don't wuss out."

Lily's eyes darted from brother to brother. Tall, confident James had the upper hand here: He'd been Gryffindor's stronger Beater for the past two years, and while his house – and their parents' house – hadn't won the Quidditch house cup during that time at Hogwarts, James had grown confident in their chances. Al, on the other hand, was anything but a Beater. Smaller, thinner, and built like their lanky father, he had set his sights on following in his footsteps as Gryffindor's Seeker. With the last Seeker graduating, this year was his best chance at making the team.

Stupid banter in Lily's eyes. Much to her mother's dismay, she'd taken to the Falmouth Falcons at an early age. She'd followed England's professional Quidditch league since she'd been a little girl, not only because her mother had once played Chaser for the Holyhead Harpies, but also because England sported the top pro league in the world. Why not follow the best?

While James wasn't bad, he certainly wasn't the best.

"There's a gnome Mum wanted me to get at," said Albus, dissecting his muffin and steering clear of Quidditch. "I'm going to get to that –"

James guffawed. "In the pouring rain? Give me a break. Sis, come on. You playing today?"

Lily rolled her eyes internally. Up to her to break their tie again. "It's too wet to play. I'll help Al."

"You both are poops," James said with a frown, devouring his kippers as he did. "Al, come on. Lily's going to make the Hufflepuff team before you become our Seeker at this rate."

Hufflepuff again. Lily felt as if she shouldn't have felt such resistance towards the house – both her father and mother had friends who had been Hufflepuffs, after all – but James made it out to be a place to be avoided. _Decent, yeah, but they never win anything. Anything. Pretty boring, really_. Boring. That was the last thing she needed. _Boring and the baby_.

The rain had grown worse by the time Al and Lily ventured outside. Finding a gnome in this weather _did_ seem stupid, but it beat reading over Bathilda Bagshot again, or trying to figure out just which dark art Lily would need to combat in the Sorting. She pulled her purple jacket's hood tightly over her head and gazed up at her family's house. The Potter residence rose up in a sloping dome from the hilly earth, a wooden half-globe with James's bedroom overlooking Ottery St. Catchpole at the very top of the dwelling. Rain sloped off the dark wood in great rivers, eased by some spell Lily's mother had placed over the home years before. It was quaint, but refined – much more so than their grandparents' home at The Burrow, at the very least.

Al looked anxious inside of his thick green jacket, so close in color to his deep eyes, the likes of which neither James nor Lily shared. "I just need to get out of the house," he said to Lily as they walked down the gravel leading away from the oaken front door. Rapids of water cascaded over the rocks and pebbles of the walk in the rain. "You can go back if you want. I'm not finding any gnome in this."

Lily weighed her options. Running inside seemed nice in this hellacious weather, but stewing over school in a month wasn't a much better option than standing outside. "I'm fine."

"Suit yourself," said Al with a shrug. "Let's go to the Muggle bakery in the village. I still have some allowance from Dad."

Worms, snails, and all sorts of nasty things slithered about the grass as Al and Lily trudged off over the hills of Devon. Neither said much: Lily because she had too much running about her mind, Al because that was status quo for him.

Finally, he spoke up: "You look like you're going to fall asleep."

"I was up early reading."

"Reading what?'

" _A History of Magic_. I just want to be ready for the Sorting. James keeps going on about failing and ending up in Hufflepuff."

Al looked at her as if she'd contracted some strange disease. "Why?"

"Because I don't want to fail my Sorting test!" Lily said, stamping her foot in the mud and splashing Al's trousers.

"Your _Sorting Test?_ "

"Yes, James said – "

"That you believe James is mental. You didn't even ask Dad or Mum about it?"

"No, but –"

"Lils, you put a hat on your head and it assigns you a house. There's no test. You didn't even ask Aunt Hermione? Or even Rose?"

Lily stopped in a puddle of mud and felt stupid. Not again. James had sounded so convincing, backing up his defense of a test with examples. _One Slytherin our year said that Gellert Grindelwald was born in Galicia, and…well, look where he ended up._

Her brother stirred patterns in a mud puddle and looked away. "Look, Hufflepuff's fine. I have a friend there, Caroline Maisley. She's nice. They're a good house."

"It's just…let's just go," Lily said, feeling down and hiding beneath her hood.

She and Al didn't say anything for a few minutes. Cancerous thoughts flew about Lily's head. _By the founders. You might as well flunk out at this rate_ , they taunted. _You don't think James is messing with you? You're…lord, you belong in Hufflepuff. Just be gullible for the rest of your life. There's probably some grunt position in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures that might accept you. Might. Could be a stretch._

"I just feel stupid," Lily said at last, making Al jump right as he tried to evade a clump of slugs in the grass. Instead he trod right on top of them, spraying goo everywhere.

Al grimaced and wiped his boots in the grass. "You don't, uh…euch. Stupid about what?"

"Stupid that I'm going to end up somewhere dumb at school. You're Gryffindor. So's James. So's cousin Rose and Fred and Roxanne, and even Louis and Dominique. All our cousins were or are Gryffindor. Even Victoire. I bet Hugo will be, too."

"So? Teddy Lupin was a Hufflepuff."

"Yes, but…that's beside the point."

Al sighed and stopped, rubbing his boots again in the grass. "Sis, stop. Look. Houses. Don't. Matter."

"Of course they matter, they –"

"You're overthinking it. Stop," said Al. He looked off towards the quiet Muggle village down at the base of the hills of Ottery St. Catchpole. One- and two-story brick houses emerged out of the earth down there, smoke wafting up from chimneys, only to be lost in the wind and the rain. "Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, it's just to give you something to hold onto at school and to help you make friends. It doesn't make you anything you weren't before."

"Well, if I end up somewhere stupid, then –"

"Then you'll still be you," Al said. He looked tired, his eyes tightening behind his glasses. "Haven't you talked with Mum or Dad about this?"

"No."

In times like this, Lily could envision Albus thirty years in the future. She could almost see lines creasing his forehead, a sort of maturity washing over him far beyond his thirteen years. She found their talks awkward, especially his propensity to delve into full moral-lecture mode, but there was something…something…different with him compared to the banter she shot at and received from James. Sometimes Al hardly seemed like a teenage boy at all.

Al rubbed his hands together. "When I was on the platform about to board the train for my first year," he said, "Dad told me he'd be proud no matter what house I ended up in. I was afraid I'd end up in Slytherin, but I got Gryffindor. Same thing with you. It doesn't matter that much. And stop reading textbooks, at least. That's just going to stress you out."

Lily folded her hands and looked away, but some part of her deep inside felt better. James was the star in so many ways – Quidditch team player, popular, and he'd even just gotten his prefect badge for the upcoming year – but Al, while he didn't have that prestige, understood people better.

They'd topped the last hill overlooking the Muggle village when Albus stopped Lily with an outstretched hand. He glanced towards a small depression nearby, squinting, frowning, and waving her forward as he moved to check it out.

"What?" Lily asked, but Al wouldn't answer.

He creased his brow and moved forward, his gait slow and purposeful. There – Lily spotted a dark _thing_ lying in the grass, moving here and there, quivering. Al trotted ahead, wary of danger. As they got close, Lily stopped suddenly, recoiling in horror. It was their neighbor, who she'd heard her parents discussing just that morning, Edward Fawcett.

The elderly wizard lay in a pool of rainwater, his robes torn, his eyes dashing about frantically as he clawed at his arms. As Al approached, he noticed the young boy, backing himself as far into the hillside as he could. "No – no!" he cried, his voice tired, exhausted, as if he'd ran all the way from the Ministry of Magic itself.

"Mr. Fawcett?" Al asked. He started forward, thought better of it, and shielded Lily with one arm. "Are you okay?"

He laughed, not a funny laugh, but one bordering on crazed, horror-filled anxiety. "It's them. They're there. They're there, boy! There!"

"What's there?"

"I can feel them. Feel. There!" he said, grabbing his forearm again. "Sliding, creeping – crawling about beneath my skin! _Ahh_ – there! _Ahhh!_ "

Mr. Fawcett doubled over in pain, clenching both his arms to his stomach. "Lily," Al breathed, keeping his eyes on their neighbor, "run home. Go get James. Get James and –"

He didn't have time to finish before Ed Fawcett screamed in pain. Lily saw it then: Something wriggled along beneath the skin of his neck, something worm-like and thin, shooting up towards his head and forcing him to clutch his temples in agony.

"Tell James to get Mum or Dad, now," Al said, keeping his distance from Ed Fawcett.

Lily didn't need him to say it again. She dashed away, determined to put as much space between her and the crazed Mr. Fawcett as possible.


	3. That Left Behind

_**Thanks to the story's three new followers, and all those reading along so far! Minor change introduced to this chapter: Hogwarts always seemed to have far too small of a student body for its size (in particular, the Great Hall's size), especially given how Harry's Gryffindor class had only ten total members, including him. Given some other numbers mentioned in the books (the number of fans turning out for Quidditch matches, for example, or the World Cup), I've increased the size of Hogwarts's student body. Also, slight adjustments to the final chapter of Book 7's reference to pets.**_

* * *

Night had fallen by the time Lily's father trudged through the first door, his robes soaked and caked with mud, his hair so chaotic that birds could have nested in it. Lines creased his forehead and the corners of his eyes, turning the typically warm face that Lily loved into something old and weary. Lily had questions as soon as he came through the door, but she knew better than to ask them outright – by the way Mr. Fawcett had acted, crazed, scared, she knew she had the same chance of getting a straight answer from her father as James did of converting to an adherent of Slytherin house.

"Is he alright?" Lily's mother said first.

Her father opened his mouth to say something and closed it without a word, merely shaking his head. His eyes looked lost somehow, not focusing on anything in particular in the cozy kitchen lined with pictures of the Potter family, pots and pans, dirty dishes from a solemn dinner in the sink, and a magical radio that Al had unintentionally gotten stuck on Ministry broadcast news the day before. It didn't feel so cozy tonight.

"Did the thing inside of him come out?" Lily piped out finally, her curiosity getting the better of her.

Al shot a warning glance her way, but it was too late. "You three should get to bed," their father said without looking up, his hand trembling a touch as he reached for a glass of water. "Everything's fine. Mr. Fawcett's going to be fine. He's sick, that's all."

 _If he's just sick, you wouldn't have spent all day at St. Mungo's_ , Lily thought. Ed Fawcett was an average old wizard compared to her father, but he surely knew well enough how to treat any old illness. Taking him to the wizarding hospital, staying there when Aurors certainly weren't needed for magical healing, and that _look_? No, he wasn't going to be fine, and he was obviously not just sick.

Arguing wouldn't achieve anything. Fright writhed in Lily's stomach as she trudged up the stairs, James and Al ahead of her, their heads together, their voices low.

"What did it look like, exactly?" James said as Lily stretched one ear towards their conversation, one towards the kitchen below. "Just…I mean, it must have been bonkers."

Al looked revolted as James pulled his siblings into his bedroom and shut the door. Any wizard could have confused the room as a shrine to Quidditch: A pair of Puddlemore United posters overlooked James's broomstick, a sleek Meteor C, its mahogany shaft lined with thin scarlet stripes down to its sturdy twigs. James's Hogwarts trunk lay overflowing in the corner of the room, a fat, pale Abyssinian cat sitting beside it.

"Bugger off," Al said to the cat. He waved at it with his hand, but the cat didn't so much as move an inch: It continued to stare at the trunk as if it expected a dragon to leap from its depths at any minute.

James snorted and plopped down on his bed. "Don't even know why you try. Rocky's too dumb to react to anything that isn't food."

"Rocky" was an apt name, as far as Lily was concerned: A rock even would have had more personality than what had to be the least intelligent cat in Britain. Sometimes James's affections made no sense.

"So what was it, then?" James persisted, his mouth curling into an eager grin. "I mean, Lily here was wailing when she ran up to the door –"

"I wasn't _wailing_."

"Oh, right. Rain comes from your eyes."

Al shrugged and looked away, uncomfortable. "He was just clawing at himself the whole time I waited. I couldn't even make out what he was saying."

"Did he say how he got in the middle of nowhere in the rain? Usually normal wizards don't turn crazy and fall out of the sky."

"No. Er, if he did, I couldn't hear it. Look, I was afraid he was going to poison me or something. You don't it's contagious?"

James stretched his jaw in mock disappointment. "Oh, wonderful. We're all doomed now."

Lily twirled a corner of her brother's bedsheets between her fingers and looked away. Pieces from her parents' conversation in the early morning trickled back up in her mind, and she debated over how much to reveal. She could already imagine her brothers' reactions: James was bound to dive into full-blown investigator mode, demanding to know every detail he could draw from her. That would only exacerbate Al's concern over some infection spreading: If he knew Mr. Fawcett had bumbled about in the Forbidden Forest, it wouldn't take but a few minutes before his fears spread to something at school.

The diplomatic route it was, then. "Uh…you're not allowed to go into the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts, right? That's off-limits? No one goes there?"

"Pretty sure half the school's been in there," James said, rolling his eyes. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"I – I dunno, I think I was probably imagining it or dreaming it last night, but it was early, and I heard Dad leaving, but he was talking to Mum –"

James turned his full attention to his sister, his jaw twitching and ready to explode into several theories about something dangerous and wild on the loose. "It was probably just nothing," Lily went on, avoiding eye contact with her brothers, "but he said that he was going in to work because Mr. Fawcett had found something in the Forbidden Forest."

Al's face blanched. James's eyes lit up for a moment as if on the edge of revelation, then to Lily's surprise, the color of his face also drained away. "You're sure Dad said _the_ Forbidden Forest?" he said, his voice lower and more cautious. "At _the_ Hogwarts?"

"Is something going on?"

James looked torn. He clenched his brow, deep in thought over some problem or another, but his tight lip and set jaw had an uncomfortable familiarity to it. Lily'd seen the same look on her father's face in the past every time she'd asked some question that he'd walled off in a dead end. "That's a secret," her father had said then. "When you're all grown-up and done with school, you'll know." Lily's brother wasn't grown-up and done with school, but he struggled with holding back some information just out of her reach.

Whatever it was, Al missed his brother's reservations. "Supposedly Hagrid found a dead centaur on the edge of the woods just before the end of last term," he said, his eyes unmoored in dead space. "But rumors said it wasn't diseased or poisoned or anything, I heard it was all mauled, and –"

"I'm going to bed," James interrupted, his voice just loud enough to overpower Al's. "Get outta my room."

"I'll tell you in mine," Al told Lily as he got up and made for the door.

James shot a glance his way. Lily could have sworn his eyes turned black for a moment. "Cripes, Al, let her get some sleep. Dad already told us to go to bed."

Al hesitated, his eyes glancing between his siblings before he shrugged and said, "Fine. Er…fine."

Lily fought the urge to ask more questions. James's flip from adventurous to withdrawn and Al's slip told her all that needed to be said. _Is something going on? Yes._

Can't say that out loud, though. Might frighten the baby sister.

Rather than reassure Lily, James and Al's reluctance to spill the beans over the incident surrounding the Forbidden Forest only made her more anxious as the first of September approached. While she'd tossed aside Bathilda Bagshot, she dwelled even more on all the potential problems lying in wait once the Hogwarts Express had pulled away from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. _I'm going to end up in the wrong house. People there aren't going to like me. I'm not even smart enough to remember half the things in_ A History of Magic. _Other lessons are going to be a disaster, and that's if I don't get infected or mauled by something in the Forbidden Forest_. _What if it comes into the castle somehow?_

Her family wasn't helping to ease her fears.

"The amount of books for this year is just barbaric," Lily's oldest brother griped during their trip to Diagon Alley to pick up school supplies. "Every year they're just dead set at chucking more work at everyone."

"Can't I just get my own books, Mum?" Lily complained as they loitered outside Techne's Tomes and Literature, her father having made an escape to her Uncle Ron and George's shop down the street. The thought of using her brothers' hand-me-down books made Lily uneasy about their usefulness, especially after finding a crude game of hangman etched on an early chapter of James's _A History of Magic_. Someone had figured out that, "Moldy socks" best answered, "What would Binns smell like if he was a human being?" _Useful knowledge._

Her mother looked harried. "I don't think your brothers destroyed their copies, Lily. They're fine for you. And for the last time, you do well your first year, we'll get you a pet next summer, alright? Same thing we did with James and Al."

"Bad luck, sis," James scoffed as Al emerged from Moira's Magical Menagerie, clutching a bag of owl feed. "Going to have to deal with the school's turkey vultures if you want to send letters. Better watch out, though. They projectile vomit."

"I wish they had those. That probably would have come in handy a few times when I was in school," their mother said, a sly smile playing across her lips.

Ten days until September. Then five, then two, then one. On the first morning of the ninth month of 2019, Lily's stomach somersaulted and pirouetted as she stared at her breakfast. Sizzling sausages and mash stared back up at her – _eat us_ , they said. _Do you want to go on your first Hogwarts Express nervous AND hungry?_ Try as she might, Lily couldn't as much as poke at the sausages with her fork.

"Does the Ministry always give you a car, Dad?" asked Albus, waving his sausage-skewering knife out the Potter house's window. A shiny black sedan waited outside, sleek and powerful.

James cut in: "Nah, that's mine."

"Maybe if you'd gotten prefect," their father said with a smirk, his eyes glancing about the Daily Prophet before tossing the paper aside. "But I think I've earned a car by now."

"Zero prefects in the family so far. That's something to be proud of. At least George's probably thrilled with us after Fred made it last year," Lily's mother said, inspecting the breakfast table. "Harry, are you even going to eat? Lily, you too. You haven't even touched that."

Lily's father cut in before she could muster up a defense: "It's a big day. My stomach's not really cooperating. Come on, Ginny. We can clean up breakfast later." He swept up Lily's mother in one arm, grinning and giving her a kiss before she could rebuke him.

"Revolting. There's this thing called privacy," said James. Lily faked a grimace, but something warm fluttered in her stomach. She knew all about her father's history and what had happened to his parents, her paternal grandparents. Seeing her mother and father still so deeply in love gave her something to hold on to. She couldn't imagine heading off to Hogwarts for her first year alone, full of questions with no one to answer them.

 _Of course, there's one question –_ no. _No_ , _no need to work yourself up about the Forbidden Forest_. Lily's stomach churned, and the warmth in her gut dissipated at once.

The ride to King's Cross didn't settle Lily's fears. If anything, each passing minute made her more nervous at the prospect of getting on the train for the first time and leaving home behind. She squirmed in the back seat of the car as James and her father talked Quidditch up front. "Ravenclaw's absolute turds this year," said James, dismissing their chances with a wave of his hand. "Knock off Slytherin and we're in the clear."

"Do first-years ever make the team?" Lily piped up, more to take her mind off of her queasiness than anything.

"Made it my first year," her father said. "You have an opening for Seeker, right?"

"That's our only vacancy, though. Rest of the team's coming back," said James. "Sorry, but good luck, sis. You're trying out for Seeker anyway, Al."

Al nodded, but he looked out the window as he murmured, "Yeah. I'll be there."

 _If you even get into Gryffindor, Lily_. The unsaid mocking hung over her head as she let her imagination get the better of her. She had a decent enough broom, she figured – the Falcon Mach 6 her mother and father had gotten her for her eleventh birthday the past March – but she had no experience chasing the Snitch around the pitch. _Zero percent. Those are the odds you make the team if you get into Gryffindor_.

"James, is Professor Altair coming back?" Al asked, breaking Lily's concentration.

"The astronomy professor?" Lily's father said. "I heard from Seamus Finnegan that she'd retired after last year's leave. Didn't you have a substitute for the last half of the term?"

Al rolled his eyes. "Yeah, bit of a strange guy. Professor Vos."

"Bonafide weirdo," added James. "Seriously, Lils, just sleep through astronomy. It's in the middle of the night, and Vos is from…you know, I don't even know where he's from. Not Britain, that's for sure."

"He had this gigantic purple slug-worm thing in a terrarium in his office last year. That's all that you need to know," Al finished.

Their mother looked amused. "C'mon, it's a useful subject. Lily, it's useful. Harry, you learned things in astronomy, right?"

"I copied off Hermione's homework, ask her," he replied. "Ah, Europa's not covered in mice. That's all I can remember."

"You know Professor Longbottom at least, Lily. Neville's head of Gryffindor house too, so you'll be fine. And Hagrid's there too."

Lily held her other questions, as much as she wanted to ask about the other teachers. _Charms? Transfiguration?_ She knew by now what classes first-years like herself would have to take, but James and Al had been stingy about information regarding her teachers. The best she'd ever gotten was James's complaining about "Boring old Binns" from History of Magic, compounded by his doodles in his textbook.

The clocktower of King's Cross station loomed up surprisingly fast, and just like that, Lily found herself hurtling through crowds of Muggles towards the train platforms. She'd done this four times already, but every other time she'd known she'd head back home after watching her brothers set off for another school year. _Consistency_. Not this time.

High-speed Muggle trains saddled up to platforms nine and ten in the station, Muggles crowding around them. York and points beyond, read one train. Falmouth _,_ the other. Lily felt the eyes of the Muggles on her more this year than before. _Why does your brother have an owl?_ They asked, probing, picking. _And your other brother a cat?_ She spotted other wizarding families congregating nearby, their trunks and animals so similar, yet she was part of the spotlight this year.

Al hurried off first: "I told Rose I'd say hi before getting on," he said, glancing around platforms nine and ten. "Mum – I'll –"

Lily's father grabbed him in a hug before he could go on. She just heard him whisper above the crowd noise, "I know you'll make it. We'll send a letter soon, alright?" Al nodded, whispered something back, and dashed towards the pillar between the platforms. Before Lily could get in a word to her brother, he disappeared into the brick column.

James made an excuse to rush on immediately after, and in just a minute, Lily was left alone with her mother and father, staring up at the column between platforms nine and ten.

Her father put one hand on the carriage holding her trunk, grinned, and said, "Ready?"

She hesitated and looked back at her mother for reassurance. Another smile. "Ready."

Lily ran. Her father ran. She closed her eyes as the pillar closed in, three feet away, and then – nothing. She opened them again, looking around as her father pulled up their trolley before it ran into the tall, red-haired man in front of them.

"Bloody racing going on in here," the man chortled. "Oh, obviously. Harry! Taking the little runt in at a run?" Lily's Uncle George clapped her father on the back, smiling from ear to her as her mother crossed through the pillar. "Harry's wife! I don't believe we've ever met…"

"Strange man!" said Lily's mother. "I can't fathom where we would've met. It's a good thing we're not related."

Uncle George pulled Lily aside: "Meant to give you something the last time we meant, but forgot. Here." He pressed a brown globe into her hands, winking as he did so. "Probably know what that is. You've got our hair, so you're good enough to make it as a member of the Weasley clan. Fred's already a prefect and Roxanne's lining up to be one next year, so I need someone to carry out the mischief. You in?"

Lily knew what this is. _Dungbomb_. A rush flooded over her – this was it, this was _actually_ it, she was headed to Hogwarts! _Dungbomb_. What a parting gift. "Where should I blow it up at?"

"Well, that's up to you," her uncle said. "And – ah, there he is! Great prat!"

Lily's Uncle Ron cut his way through the crowds. At his side tailed her cousin Hugo, a grin stretching across his face. Lily immediately know he'd make better use of the dungbomb.

"Lily!" Hugo shouted. He crashed into his cousin at a sprint, almost knocking her to the ground as she fought to keep her footing. "Listen, is your brother a prefect?"

"James? No, I –"

"Oh, blast it!" he said, his eyes sinking in disappointment. "I had a great idea to fool with him if he was."

Uncle Ron chuckled, watching from a distance. "He's corrupting her already," he said to Lily's father. "Lily hasn't read the textbooks already or anything, right? That'd be so disappointing."

"Ron!"

Lily heard her aunt's protest, but she didn't look up to see her. At that moment, a loud, low whistle sounded out, drowning out the din of hundreds of parents and students who congregated across the platform. The anxious feeling flooded back into Lily's gut, and she looked up, startled, hesitant. She'd waited so long for this, but now that the Hogwarts Express was about to leave, she wanted more time: Time to ask questions, time to listen, time to talk. Just more time.

"Hey," her father said, gripping her by the shoulders and bending down. "You're all set to go?"

Lily nodded, but she didn't mean it. The corners of her eyes grew heavy, and she glanced towards her mother for reassurance. "What do you want me to do when I get there?"

"You don't worry about us," said her father. He tapped the left side of her chest: "You just listen to this, alright? Work hard and do what you think is best?"

A funny thought raced through Lily's mind. She had to ask. She had to ask now. "Dad –"

"On the train," he interrupted, pushing her towards the nearest carriage. "We'll write, Lily. Don't you worry."

That wasn't what she worried about. _What do you know about the Forbidden Forest?_ she wanted to ask. Before she could say anything more, however, the Hogwarts Express sounded off a long, deep horn blast and pushed forward from the station. Lily bit her lip and watched her parents fade further and further behind, her rocks of stability and security disappearing into the eleven years of her past as the train picked up speed.

She could only face her fears of the future alone.


	4. Some Crazed Notion

_**Big thanks to allthingsbright for the review + follow! Slight adjustment to Hogsmeade Station from the description in book one in this chapter. Also a pair of old friends making their first appearance.**_

* * *

Well, Lily wasn't _entirely_ alone.

Dozens of other students, some tall and confident, others as short and scared-looking as she imagined she appeared, milled about the hall of the train car. The older boys and girls headed off either way down the corridor, chatting, laughing, catching up, and ignoring the first-years who hadn't a clue where to go or what to do next. Cabins lining one side of the train filled in seconds. Lily felt frozen, clutching her trunk and looking around as if she'd been thrown into a freezing deluge without so much as a sweater for warmth.

A hand pulled on her arm. "You look like a fish gaping. Can we find a cabin?" Her cousin Hugo looked at her with annoyed eyes. He ran a hand through his red hair, just as wild and unruly as hers, and pointed a thumb over his shoulder. "Rose told me there's things to eat."

"I was…" Lily paused, wondering what she meant to say. What was she supposed to do? "I was going to wait for Al."

"I bet if we lit the carpet on fire, that'd bring him," Hugo suggested at once, his eyebrows lifting in delight. "Al activates _hero-mode –_ "

"Hugo! I'm serious!"

"Seriously, I bet he has serious friends that he seriously wants to meet instead," said her cousin. "Well. I'm going this way."

Lily sighed as he walked off down the corridor. Gripping her trunk's handle tightly, she hurried after him. Expecting Al, much less James or any of her older cousins, to stick around and wait on her was stupid. Of course they'd have their own friends after years at Hogwarts. _So how do I go about making friends on a train?_

"Wait!" she said. Lily caught up to Hugo as he entered the next train car, where an open door to the nearest cabin swung open.

A boy's voice, light, airy, and uncaring, floated out into the hall: "That's not a long wand at all. Look at this. Fourteen inches. _Fourteen_. That's length. And c'mon, if we're being serious, yours is like a pencil, mate. Take if we're trying to perform with them, yikes."

"Mine reaches all the way to France," Hugo belted out as Lily reached him. She grimaced and looked into the cabin, where a skinny, short boy with chestnut hair and a similarly-colored complexion glanced up at her and her cousin as if they'd walked in on him showering.

"You're really just walking in on a private conversation?" said the boy.

Hugo shrugged. "Yeah."

"Well…well, that's your right."

"Ignore him," said Lily, pushing Hugo to the side and motioning towards the empty seat next to the boy. "Is anyone sitting there?"

"Yes."

A black-haired boy – the one who must have been comparing wand lengths – frowned at Lily from the other side of the cabin. He was taller, his hair longer and bunching up in odd jumbles here and there, his eyes deep-set and dark blue. He was clearly still growing out, but was built broader-shouldered and stronger than either his companion or Hugo. _Definitely not first-years_.

Lily bit her lip. "We'll – I mean, I just don't see anybody else around."

"Might have to whip my wand out and lay it somewhere," the first boy said with a grin. "I mean, it'll take up that whole seat, so…"

"They're coming back," his companion finished. One boy in the cabin had a sense of humor, and it clearly wasn't him.

Lily stepped back into the hall, holding up her holds in defeat. "Alright, sorry."

"There's plenty of open cabins all over."

She felt an instant dislike for the black-haired boy. He was so darn serious, like Al if her brother didn't have that innocent and empathic side to him. "Fine. I'll go to those."

Lily pulled Hugo away before her cousin could spit out a retort. "Are you two like, twins?" the first boy called out as she marched away. "Uncanny resemblance."

"We're not twins!" she grumbled, just loud enough for him to hear.

Hugo and Lily passed through a particularly popular car filled to the brim with students, stepping into the carriage after that before they found an empty cabin. Happy to dump her heavy trunk at last, Lily flopped down into a seat and looked out at the scenery flashing by in the window. No London, no home, just rolling green hills and an old oak dashing south as she hurried north. Thick gray clouds loomed large overhead, only growing darker and more formidable as Lily pressed her face to the glass to see ahead of the train.

"D'you have to be so gloomy?" said Hugo, glowering at her. "You'd think someone killed your puppy."

"No on one killed the puppy I don't have, thanks. And you're the one making us look like idiots in front of everyone else."

Hugo scrunched up his face, amused. "What, those two goons back there?"

"'Mine reaches to France…'"

"'Sakes, Lily, it's called banter. Girls are weird. Rose was acting all the same on the way to the station. She's a monster at home and then just morphed into a git once we arrived."

Lily sighed. "I'm not trying to be a git."

That she had no one else to sit with besides her cousin weighed heavily on her patience. _This was the problem with spending all your childhood around one large family_ , she thought. James, Al, and she had all learned from their grandmother as little kids, and their parents had taken them to aunts and uncles' houses to play with this cousin and that – more often than not, with Hugo and Rose – all the time. That was a different slice of life, however, a different world entirely, a supervised and familiar one. This was Hogwarts, full of strange faces who wouldn't always be so keen to run off and play. Departing Platform Nine and Three-Quarters had meant leaving behind much more than just her parents.

Try as she might, Lily couldn't suppress the spider of anxiety that crawled through her stomach.

If Hugo was feeling the same thing, he wasn't showing it: "D'you think they allow magic on the train? Last time you all were over at our house, your brother was teaching me this one jinx –"

"Are you trying to get us thrown out already?" Lily groaned. She pawed Uncle George's dungbomb, now stashed safely away in the back pocket of her trousers. A spot of brown still stained her right hand. "And what'd James teach you?"

"Well, I'm not telling you if you're going to be a pooper," said Hugo, sticking out his tongue at her. "I'ma go look around."

"Hugo –" Lily started, but before she could finish, her cousin had run off down the hall, letting the door slam behind him.

 _Now I'm really alone_. Lily pulled her knees up to her chest, leaned her head against the window, and watched the dark clouds off in the distance. Every year for four years she'd seen James off at King's Cross, counting down to the day she'd be riding away on this great scarlet steam engine too. For two years she'd watched both her brothers leave her behind. Every day a little closer, an inch further towards fulfilling her dream.

The irony. Counting down to the day where she only felt dread about what came next. _Even my cousin ditched me._

The sky grew dark as the train chugged on, and alone in the warmth of the train car, Lily dozed off.

 _Everyone's watching. Please, just Gryffindor. My whole family's there. They'll make fun of me otherwise and I'll never hear the end of it._

 _Alright, the hat told her. You asked for it – "Gryffindump!"_

 _Brown-robed trolls applauded Lily as she hurried off to join the Gryffindump table, a circular, mold-covered platform buried deep in a pit. Her brothers look down from the pit's top, James laughing, "You've finally found your people, sis!"_

 _She looked up to Al, but in her horror, it wasn't her brother. Her father looked down, tears in his eyes as he said, "It's alright, Lily. I'm proud of trolls."_

"Hey. You awake?"

Lily started as a hand shook her shoulder. To her horror, James looked down at her, his eyes tight with concern. "You're not sitting with Hugo?"

"Mmph," Lily groaned, stretching, rubbing her eyes, and waving her hand towards where Hugo had been sitting across from her. "That's his trunk."

"He just left you here?"

"Yeah."

Annoyance flashed across her brother's face. "That little turd. I'm going to drop him out a window. Get dressed in your robes, sis. We're almost there."

"What?" she said. Lily sat up, wide awake now, reaching for her trunk to dig her robes out.

"You've been alone this whole time?" James said, that uncomfortable look on his face only growing darker. "I walked by and just saw you in here."

Heat flushed Lily's face. "I'm fine, James."

"You sure?"

"I'm fine. Really."

Pity, that was it. She saw pity in his expression, a gray sadness infecting his usually carefree face. It made her want to shrink into a speck of dirt in her corner of the cabin, withering away until her oldest brother couldn't even see she existed. "Alright. Guess I'll see you then."

As soon as he left, Lily leaned over and pressed her face into her hands. It wasn't supposed to be like this on her very first day.

"Where've you been? God, I've been up and down the whole train."

She looked up as Hugo barged into their cabin, the dregs of a bag of Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans clutched in his right hand. Purple and gray beans rattled around in the bottom of the bag – no doubt bearing ghastly flavors such as "spleen" or "wood fungus."

"Where've I been? Where've _you_ been? You left me this whole afternoon!"

Hugo shrugged. "Just about. I'ma get dressed. Everyone else is."

Disgruntlement lingered in Lily's mind even as she and Hugo stepped off the Hogwarts Express for the first time. Squat brick buildings cropped up all around the long, stone station platform of Hogsmeade. Lily had been to the village once before, long ago with her family, but it had just been any old village then – bright, calm, full of shoppers, even picturesque in its wintertime glory. Now shadows crept everywhere in the darkness of the night, tiny, twinkling lights dotting all about like struggling lightning bugs. A great loch stretched out to Lily's left – the Black Lake, a giant expanse of dark water that splashed in gentle rhythms against the shore. Monsters could have lurked just a foot beneath the surface and she wouldn't have known.

Her brothers had told her enough of what to expect next. A giant of a man hailed first-years from the side of the lake, where an armada of small boats waded in the tide. The night shaded his face, but Lily knew him – and not just from the dim lantern light that touched the fraying gray hear of his scraggly beard. Her father and mother shared a strong friendship with Rubeus Hagrid, still Hogwarts's gamekeeper and Care of Magical Creatures professor despite getting up there in age. As Lily drew closer, she could see the years etched on his face: No longer was Hagrid so jovial and full of energy as she saw in pictures around her home. Lines stretched across his forehead and about the corners of his eyes and mouth. His hair thinned on both sides, while veins popped up on his hands as he waved.

"'Bout time yeh troublemakers showed up!" Hagrid shouted to Lily and Hugo upon spotting them. "Don' try diving in!"

Lily managed a polite wave as Hugo pulled her into the first boat he could find. A tall, grinning boy with short ashen hair and a pale complexion looked them up and down as they boarded, the boat quaking underneath them: "People are pairing up already? I missed someone's owl."

Before Lily could answer, a bouncy blonde girl leapt into the boat after them to take the last seat, nearly capsizing the whole vessel as she plopped down next to the boy. He gripped the sides for support and grumbled, "You trying to sink us?"

"Panic at the shipwreck!" the girl laughed. "What, did you think this was a bed or something?"

"Well, maybe I thought I'd lay down for a nap before you rudely jumped in like a mammoth," said the boy.

"'Lie.'"

"Huh?"

"You _lie_ down after you _lay_ your books down. Or your butt down. 'Cuz this is a boat."

The boy gaped at her as if he'd just met an alien. "Oh, you're a ray of sunshine."

"Not really, 'cuz –"

" _I know,_ there's no sun out because it's nighttime. Does ray of sunshine have a name?"

"I'm the Prime Minister. Obviously," said the girl. After a moment with no laughs in response, she sighed and said, "Fine, I'm Natalie."

The boy scoffed. "Have fun in Ravenclaw house, Natalie. If you're correcting grammar already, that's where you're going."

"So what's your high-and-mighty destination?" the girl, Natalie, said. "The White House?"

"The wh – oh, you're Muggle-born, aren't you?"

"Oh _boo-hoo_ , sorry to tell you, my mum's a witch," said Natalie. "Well, what are you?"

The boy allowed himself a smug smile. "Following in my family's footsteps. Father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were all in Gryffindor. I'm Alroy McLaggen."

"Alroy? What kind of name is that? Are you Irish or something?" Natalie said. "You know, these two other people in the boat probably think we're mental."

Lily thought the girl's laugh erred on the crazy side. She was much more astonished that Hugo had stayed quiet the whole time, watching Alroy and Natalie toss barbs as if it were an everyday occurrence, despite them being complete strangers. Lily hadn't even noticed the boat launching from the shore: By the time she composed herself, they were halfway across the lake. Lights high and low blinked above in a great array of yellow. Black shapes drifted out of the darkness – the towers and walls of Hogwarts.

She lost herself in awe for a moment before realizing her companions were still staring at her. Rushing to compose herself, she mumbled, "I'm, uh…Lily."

"Hugo Weasley," her cousin said, tossing his head towards Alroy. "Also going to a Gryffindor. Done deal."

"Weasley?" Alroy said, clearly impressed. "My dad mentioned your family a few times. Coming to Gryffindor too, I guess?"

"Just how it goes," Hugo said, shrugging and smirking.

Natalie looked at him as if she wanted to break down laughing, glanced at Lily, and said, "Are you in on this lovefest too? 'Cuz I'm about to throw myself into the water."

"She's my baby sister. I own her," Hugo said before Lily had time to answer.

"I'm _not_ your sister!"

Alroy and Hugo went back to talking as Lily looked away. _Idiot cousin._ Now Natalie looked at her as if she were ready to split her sides at her fretting. _Ugh._

Lily glanced down into the water, desperate to look anywhere else but at her companions. Something glided about deep below – long, sleek, and dark, barely visible in the black water. She off towards where the boats were heading, a low arch of ivy with rocks dotting a cliffside. Something perched up on the rocks – something large and slimy. James and Al had told her of the giant squid that lived in the lake, but this didn't look like a squid at all. If anything, it looked like someone had crossed a great worm with an octopus, mashing them together into a glistening _thing_ with two slug-like tails and a plethora of tentacle arms sticking out at odd angles. Lily squinted, and in the darkness, she thought she saw eyes – not just two, but many, some where it seemed eyes shouldn't be at all.

As if noticing her stare, the creature dropped off its perch, splashing into the black water below and disappearing into the lake.

"What?" said Natalie, interrupting her concentration and glancing at the cliff. "Oh, that's cool. Kind of a dock."

Lily shivered. The water rippled with the motion of something fast and powerful coursing through the water, rushing away towards the woods off on the far shore of the lake. The forest, even. She had an idea of just what forest that was – and of someone from Ottery St. Catchpole who'd been in that forest recently.

Not more than a minute later, their boat bumped into a long wooden dock. Natalie bounded out not a second after they'd touched, eager to get going towards a winding passageway that cut up through the rock. _That was me for four years_ , Lily thought, her mind glum. _Why do I have to be so dumpy?_ Maybe it was the train ride and Hugo being an idiot. Maybe it was the upcoming Sorting, her nervousness tripped by Alroy and Natalie's argument in the boat.

Maybe something unseen entirely.

Hagrid opened a pair of great doors, revealing a broad-shouldered, middle-aged wizard in crimson and gold robes within. Another familiar: If anything, Lily knew Hogwarts's Deputy Headmaster and professor of Herbology, Neville Longbottom, more than she did any other non-relative. He'd stopped by enough at their house and his Uncle Ron's, and while he had no children of his own, James and Al had always praised his classes over the summers.

"Hagrid," Professor Longbottom said, reaching out for a hand to shake.

Hagrid clapped him on the shoulder instead, an even bigger smile brightening his face as he left the professor's handshake hanging. "Neville. Yeh get 'em all sorted."

Professor Longbottom nodded as Hagrid left, but not before winking Lily's way. It didn't help: She only felt the weight of one more person hanging on what happened next.

"Hello. Everyone. Well…this is Hogwarts. You all got your letters, right? If not, I might have to ask you to turn around and go home," Professor Longbottom said, laughing gingerly at his own joke. Everyone stared in silence.

 _At least someone else has nerves_ , Lily thought. He'd only been Deputy Headmaster for a year, according to her father. This was all still new. As he explained the houses and the Sorting Ceremony, Lily's thoughts wandered. _A hat assigns you a house_. That was what Al had said. _Houses. Don't. Matter._ That advice had sounded a lot better in the rain back home than it did in the heat of the moment. _Houses don't matter, but if you get something that's not Gryffindor, I'll disown you_ , Lily imagined James saying.

Sometime in the midst of her thoughts Professor Longbottom had finished his opening speech, and Lily felt herself pushed along by the eighty or so other first-years into a magnificent hall. Golden light glittered from every corner of the space, from the lonely corners of the room far in the distance to atop the four long wooden tables stretched out vertically across the hall. A dark, cloudy sky looked down overhead, a hundred more candles floating in the air drowning out the black.

Lily wasn't watching the sky, nor the candles – nor even Professor Longbottom as he set out a frayed, ancient-looking hat upon a stool that opened up a crease and belted out the first lines of a song. She looked out at all the faces staring up at her instead. _They're all going to watch this?!_

Even worse: Lily spotted James and Al far on the left side of the hall, seated along with somewhere between one and two hundred other black-robed students, every single one of them looking up at her and the other newcomers. _You have got to be kidding me. I thought this would be private!_ Her cousin Rose, Hugo's sister, sat right next to Al, her long, straight red hair hanging down to her elbows as she watched the proceedings. Upon catching Lily's glance, she smiled and gave a thumbs-up.

 _Why can't I sink into the floor?_ Lily absent-mindedly reached for something to hold onto, her fingers gripping the first thing they reached – someone else's hand.

"What're you doing?" said a boy's voice behind her as the hand pulled away.

Lily looked up. The black-haired boy from the train, the serious one who had shooed her away from his cabin, looked at her as if she'd turned into a newt. _He's a first-year?_ "Sorry," Lily muttered, pulling her hand back and clenching her jaw.

Right as she felt her start at Hogwarts could begin no worse, Professor Longbottom called up the first boy to be sorted – Raimie Abdul, a squat, strong-jawed, black boy who nearly rushed the stool and the hat – and the game was on.

Gryffindor notched the first win of the evening as Raimie skipped over to Al and James's table. Rose smiled and clapped, her eyes glancing over the other three tables as if to brag about landing the first student of the night.

It didn't take long before the others pulled in their new recruits. Lily shivered as the pool of first-years dwindled, a long process given how many clustered around her. _Hufflepuff! Slytherin!_ One after the other trotted away, sorted and belonging to something at last.

"Natalie Hightower," called Professor Longbottom, and the blonde girl from the boat took her turn at the stool. Just as Alroy had predicted, not twenty seconds later, she tromped off as the newest member of Ravenclaw. A sharp round of applause erupted across the table next to James and Al's.

A call of "Logan Howe" summoned the serious, black-haired boy from the train immediately after. Soon after that, Natalie had company over at the Ravenclaw table.

Lily shot a furtive glance at the table next to them. The students there wore robes lined with yellow and black – the Hufflepuffs. They looked friendly enough, warm-hearted, if a bit on the slow side every time a first-year joined their table. Every time one of theirs stepped away from the hat, they welcomed their charge with more greetings and raised goblets than any other table. It wasn't the raucous boasting and laughter of the Gryffindors, but neither did they follow the fist pumps of the table to their right – what had to be Slytherin – nor the polite but restrained welcome of the Ravenclaw table.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Maybe.

Alroy McLaggen loitered nearby as their number grew smaller. "That's my table to the left," he said, an air of certainly about the proclamation as he strode forward to the Sorting Hat.

Bingo. "Gryffindor!"

Getting from the Ms to the Ps didn't take more than a few minutes. Lily's heart threatened to rip from her chest as Professor Longbottom called out, "Lily Potter."

He flashed her a little grin as she walked forward, her arms pressed to her sides as if stuck with Spello-tape. Lily chanced a glance towards the Gryffindor table: Al hunched forward on his elbows, studying her with an intense stare. James and Rose loosed up, muttering things to each other down the table before looking up at her with…some kind of expression. They looked _hungry_.

Lily's breath escaped her as she took the hat from Professor Longbottom. It was just old fabric, that was all – but when she sat down on the stool and held it out in front of her, she froze. _Can I just have a minute?_

"Put it on!" someone shouted from the Slytherin table.

Jumping in her seat, Lily jammed the hat on her head.

 _Am I that scary?_

 _Wha-!_ Lily didn't think she was hearing things, but a wizened old voice spoke inside of her head.

 _Come on now. You'll be leering at the first-years trying me on next year. I'm much more here for you than I am for them out there. Although I'm happy to toss out advice._

 _You put me in a house_? Lily thought. Even her thoughts lacked confidence. _Blech_.

 _I am a Sorting Hat_. _Oh, you didn't even listen to my song. I spend an entire year making that up._

 _Sorry._

 _Fine. Fine. Maybe music isn't the career for me. So._ The hat paused for a long moment as Lily shuffled on the stool. _You haven't given this a lot of thought, hm?_

 _Gryffindor, please_.

 _Let's see. You think everyone's trying to shun you before you even set foot in here. You're deathly afraid of your family's reaction. And you're fearful something in the Forbidden Forest is going to kill you? Well, that's interesting._

 _Please just Gryffindor_.

 _Have you even really considered WHY you want to be in Gryffindor?_

 _Please._

 _You're possessed with the crazed notion that your family will view you as some sort of troll if you land in any of the other three very deserving and noble houses. That's almost an insult to the other three founders. Not to mention your family. It seems you're concerned about others' opinions of you to the point where you're neglecting yourself entirely. Did you get the part where I called Gryffindors, "Daring and brave?"_

Lily inhaled sharply. The hat's rebuke made her shiver. _So I'm going in Hufflepuff, then?_

 _There's not a more human house than Hufflepuff. You're keen on making friends, to say the least. No better house to make them. Pure people. Good people._ The hat paused again, and Lily could almost feel it pricking her brain. _But there's something else in you, hm? Two older brothers. Famous parents, especially your father. You're in their shadow and eager to prove yourself. That's ambition. There's a house for that, you know._

 _You're putting me in Slytherin?_

 _I almost put your brother in Slytherin. Do you know what ambition can create?_

 _Voldemort?_

 _Well, yeah. But also greatness. Strength and confidence that you're seriously lacking, the kind of confidence to match your dreams in order to change the world for the better._

Lily was dimly aware that the entire hall was watching her with baited breath. How long had she been arguing with a hat?

 _Alright, Lily,_ the hat said. _I think we're set. It took me a while, but you're a tough spirit to figure out. A lot of turbulence deep down in there, a lot of fire that needs to come out. Only a challenge is going to release that, and you need to be around people who can create that._

 _Gryffindor?_

 _Oh, not again. No, I think…_

The hat paused a second as if to reassure itself of its decision before shouting out to every soul in Hogwarts, "Ravenclaw!"

The hall fell silent for a moment before a loud, shrill voice shouted, "Ha!" Natalie stood up and waved her finger at Alroy as if triumphing in a duel. Over at the Gryffindor table, James bit his lip and looked up at Lily with an expression of utter confusion, as if to say, _that is the absolute last place I would have put my sister_.

Lily shared the sentiment.

* * *

 _ **Sorry, I can't write songs for the life of me. All apologies to the Sorting Hat.**_


	5. Ravenclaw

_**Shout out to allthingsbright and SpiltInk16 for the reviews, and for the new followers! I realize in this chapter that I'm asking you to catch up with a lot of new names, but there'll be plenty of reminders on who's who in the future, promise. No quizzes.**_

* * *

Natalie's shout drew most of the Hall's attention for a brief moment, and the girl blushed, sitting down and murmuring something under her breath. Lily welcomed it: In that window of respite, she set the Sorting Hat down, lowered her head, and shuffled towards the Ravenclaw table and two long rows of strange faces.

She couldn't hazard a glance at the Gryffindors.

Her heartbeat accelerating, Lily stopped in front of the table as the other Ravenclaws finished their applause, glancing up to the hat as a small, red-faced boy nearly tripped on his way to the Sorting Hat. Lily'd figured on taking a seat next to Natalie, the only fellow first-year here she even knew, but a pair of girls sat on either side of her boat companion. " – only 'cuz that moron Alroy had a stick up you-know-where," Natalie was in the midst of telling them. "'Oh, everyone on the boat's gonna be Gryffindor but you, know-it-all.' Well, ha. He loses. That's worth shouting at him."

Lily spied an empty seat next to the black-haired boy from the train, Logan, but she shied away from taking it. He still looked mopey, and she shuddered to think what he'd say if she plopped down next to him after she'd inadvertently grabbed his hand. _Keep following me around? Shove off and go somewhere else. You're like a brain-dead puppy._ That'd be it, and that was a million times better than the other voices going through her head. _Day one failure. Disappointment. Why not just leave? James, Al, and Rose are probably dying of embarrassment. As if you ever could have been in Gryffindor. God, Mum will probably disown -_

"You just standin' there? You don't need to stand. Hard to eat I think, hah."

A chubby, fair-faced boy an inch or so taller than Al smiled at her from a few seats down the table. He beckoned to an empty seat next to him. Three older boys crowded about on the other side of him, lost in conversation, barely looking up as Lily took him up on his offer. He didn't look bad: Sure, he looked as if he had a crippling weakness to the Hogwarts meals and could've used a comb for his mop of floppy blonde hair, but he had kind, round, hazel eyes and an honest sort of smile.

"Although if we're only on the Rs, it's still a while before we eat," he said as Lily looked around. Most of the other first-years now part of Ravenclaw sat together, talking and sharing a laugh about something a tall, handsome boy with a lean face across from Natalie said. "You, uh, related to Al?"

"Hm?" Lily asked, perking up.

The boy pointed towards the Gryffindor table. "Professor Longbottom called you Potter? I know Al Potter over in Gryffindor. You related?"

"He's my brother," Lily said quietly, brushing her hair to the side and looking down.

"You're Al's sister?" a beefy, pug-faced, dark-skinned boy cattycorner to Lily's tablemate said. "Huh. Dunno how that guy's not in Ravenclaw too, actually. Smart as a tack, but he's not as big a dick as most of the Gryffindors."

The floppy-haired, chubby boy gave him a wry frown. "Alright, we don't need to curse in front of the first-years, Eliot. It's a bit early to get started."

"Christ, Porky," a silver-haired girl next to the pug-faced boy, Eliot, laughed with a tinkle-like giggle. "It's not Hogwarts School for Saints and Archbishops."

 _Your name's not Porky, I hope_ , Lily thought as Wayne Torres joined Ravenclaw. He was the boy who'd sat with Logan on the train, the one who'd asked if she and Hugo had been siblings, but he didn't notice her as he joined the other first-years, clapping Logan once on the shoulder before sitting down. _Hugo_. Lily'd forgotten about her cousin in her rush of emotion.

Before she could say another word to herself, Professor Longbottom called out her cousin. The Sorting Hat didn't need a lot of time to deliberate this time, however: No sooner had Hugo put it on did it belt out, "Slytherin!"

Lily stiffened. This was a comedy of errors. There was something wrong with the Sorting Hat. She could see herself falling short, but Hugo? Her devilish cousin, the one who so much had inherited her uncle Ron and George's mischievous ways, the kid who had the perfect mix of daring and a lack of forethought, ending up in _Slytherin_ of all places? She could only look at him with the most hopeful expression she could muster as he slunk off to the far table. His face was darker than the sky.

 _We're in the same boat, cousin._

"Doesn't look so good, does he?" chuckled Eliot. "God, I feel though. Put me in that laughingstock of a house and I'd be ready to jump off the Viaduct too."

Porky frowned. "It's not that bad, come on. My best friend's from there, Lily. Scorpius Malfoy. That's him over there."

He pointed towards an absolutely miserable looking, thin-shouldered, silver-haired boy at the far end of the Slytherin table. Scorpius's expression told Lily that he'd rather have been anywhere but at the Sorting right now. "He's, uh…he's a good guy?"

"He's the dumbest kid among us third-years," the girl next to Eliot said, rolling her eyes. "Absolutely brainless. Is he paying you to do homework for him or something, Porky? Can't think of why you like him."

"My name's Finley. Finley Elkwood," said Porky, a hint of frustration in his voice. "And no, he's not paying me, Calla. Can't think of why I like you, either."

The girl, Calla, smirked. "He's using you, then. Smartest guy our year and dumbest guy our year. That's not weird at all."

"Well that's a compliment from you, at least. That's like receiving gold out of thin air."

"Better save it. Think back to it when I plow you in Arithmancy this year."

Finley didn't look perturbed one bit by Calla's derisive nickname for him, but Lily wanted to shrink into a ball. Were all the Ravenclaws this competitive? From the way these two talked, it was as if they'd fight each other to the death the very first day of classes. If this was the whole house's version of humor, she'd be in for a long year – a long seven years.

Her draining confidence reaching the bottom of the well, Lily hung her head low and forced her eyes up as a man rose to speak at the head of the hall. He could have stood in as the British Prime Minister: With short, lightly-graying hair still tinged with black and a pair of weathered, brown eyes, the man had a look of experience and authority. Though he wasn't particularly tall and had a slight build with narrow, sloping shoulders, he stood ramrod-straight in front of the hundreds of students in the Great Hall and addressed them in a booming baritone: "Now that that's finished," he said, as if the Sorting was a waste of time, "other affairs. The protections added last year are still up around the castle and the grounds, so anyone foolish enough to wander into the Forbidden Forest is doing so at their own risk. Teachers will not show you leniency if you wander out there given recent events."

"Death wish," breathed Finley.

"For Slytherin House and anyone around the dungeons," the man went on, his lips tight as he spoke, "the cave-in from last May's not been cleared. Avoid that part of the dungeon. For the first-years, you'll know it when you see it. That's all. Eat."

Eliot snorted as food magically appeared across the table. "He really could show a shred of emotion, but that'd imply he wasn't a robot or something."

"That the Headmaster?" Lily asked, watching him as he sat down. The man had the air of someone preoccupied with things far beyond the trivialities of sorting eleven year-olds into houses.

"John Maribor's his name," Eliot grunted, scooping a mountain of mash onto his plate with all the subtlety of a shark devouring minnows. "He expelled that one kid last year."

Lily gulped. James and Al hadn't told her that. "What'd he do?"

"Decided to start some sort of ring. Think it was drug-related," said Eliot. "Anyway, bye-bye guy. No quarter from Headmaster Maribor the Merciless."

"Just what we call him," Finley said, clearly noticing the nerves that made Lily's insides writhe. "I've never been on his bad side. I mean, don't do anything stupid and you won't be."

Laughter and chatter echoed around the Great Hall, but Lily didn't find much to talk about. It didn't help that Calla and Eliot kept to themselves, or that Finley couldn't hold much of a two-way conversation, or that she'd chosen such a distant seat from where the other first-years had congregated. First stupid thing in the books. _Just a bunch more and you can get expelled, too!_

"Who's the big man on the end of the teachers' table?" Lily asked Finley halfway through the meal. At Hagrid's left sat a powerful man who looked as if he belonged more in the Muggle world than at Hogwarts. While the other teachers wore robes and magical attire, he sported an olive green short that Lily could only call a ceremonial uniform. Between his grizzled face, his unshaven facial hair, and his bulging arms, he would have been at home at a wrestling competition, much less Europe's top magical school.

"Who, Hagrid? I thought –"

"No, not Hagrid. I know Hagrid. Who's the teacher next to him?"

A grinning boy with brilliant white teeth walking boy at that moment looked down at Lily. "That's Professor Vos. Astronomy. Odd guy. You're Lily Potter, right? I was talking to all the other first-years just now and didn't see you with them."

"Pretty prefect," Calla snorted.

"You're the pretty one here," the prefect said with a smile. Lily's heart sped up a beat. He was…well, dashing. Between his swishy blonde hair, his stocky build, and his cut jaw, he made James look like an average nobody. "But that's because I'm not sitting, right Calla? Because then I'd be the only pretty one here. Your game needs a bit of work."

Calla blushed and looked away. "Don't like the others?" the prefect went on, turning back to Lily. "You'll be sleeping in the same room as half of them tonight. Not exactly a sound strategy."

"I…" Lily paused, biting her lip. "I don't think they want to talk to me."

"Oh, come on," the prefect said. "Look down there. They don't even know each other yet. That's confirmation bias. As soon as you start thinking that, you're not going to talk to them. You avoid them, they think you're stuck up, and of course they don't want to talk to you, either. You're gonna make your friends early here; everyone does. So, unless you want to be friends with Calla – " he paused and smiled. "Oh, Porky? Almost couldn't see you. Calla, shame, you're not even the pretty one at the table. Eliot's here too."

Calla groaned. "Thank you Nathan, just make me look like an idiot in front of Little Potter here."

"Enough punishment for tonight, then," he said, slapping the table. "Know you like it. Listen, Lily. Go talk to those other girls when you get up to bed tonight. That's a rule I'm setting for the next twenty-four hours. Otherwise…shame to start out with detention."

He grinned as if he'd made the funniest joke in the world before walking off. "He's not serious," Finley said. "Nathan thinks he's Merlin's gift to humor."

Lily'd figured that out, at least. That wasn't what was bothering her: "You don't…does everyone call you Porky?"

"Oh, pff, it's not that bad," Finley said, tapping his stomach. "It's well-deserved, actually. The food's rather good, and I'm not so good at resisting temptation. Just pace yourself. It's not like I'm trying out for the Quidditch team this year, especially when we don't have any openings. As if I would if we did."

Yet his self-deprecation didn't ease her nebulous anxieties. Lily didn't manage a single glance towards the Gryffindor table before the Headmaster dismissed the students for bed. The table had roared with laughter from behind her, however, making her long to be a part of it. Meanwhile, she'd eyed the other first-years of Ravenclaw from time to time as Finley tried and failed to spark small talk, Eliot and Calla spending nearly all the time ignoring them and talking to each other and a few other third-years nearby.

Then there was Hugo. They were supposed to be both in Gryffindor, just like Al and cousin Rose, having each other to fall back on while learning the ins and outs of this strange new environment. Instead, Hugo tromped off towards the dungeons with a look of utter defeat while Lily followed Nathan, a prefect girl, and a crowd of Ravenclaws out of the Entrance Hall, up three flights of stairs, winding past a number of portraits of sluggish, sleepy knights and intoxicated ladies who had enjoyed the festive atmosphere of the evening, and over to a side staircase that led up in a spiral about a limestone-walled tower. It was chilly in the tower even though the castle's Entrance Hall had been quite warm, and by the time the Ravenclaws made it to a tall, arcing door at the top, Lily clutched her arms to suppress goosebumps.

Nathan glanced down at the door and sighed. A bronze eagle statue replaced a doorknob, and as he reached for it, the effigy sprung to life. Its claws clutched the door as it glared up at the prefect.

"Inside here's our common room, first-years," he announced. "You sleep here, hang out here, whatever. Study. Homework. Fart around. If you want to get in, though, first you have to be a Ravenclaw. No smuggling in any friends from the other houses, or the door knows. Next, we don't have a password. Instead – "

"Answer this!" the eagle statue barked at him. "What has four limbs but will never shake your hand, and calls home where you will never stand?"

"You said this one last year. A bird."

The eagle moved aside as if to open the door, but looked up at Nathan and said, "Yeah, you'll want to transfigure yourself into a bird when I chuck you off the tower."

Someone – _Natalie, figures_ – snickered among the first-years: "So it's a great sarcastic doorknob?"

"Hear that, nutter? I'm not just sarcastic, I'm _great_. Next time you answer my question, you'd better bend the knee. That is, if you're not too busy preening."

"Don't feed his ego," said Nathan, shoving aside the statue and opening the door.

"Look who's talking! Good lord, if you spent any more time –"

Nathan hurried into the common room as the statue mocked him. Lily almost gasped when she walked in: She'd expected books and charts to line the place, a sort of great library where social lives went to die, but the Ravenclaw common room was _beautiful_. Royal blue and bronze curtains drifted against rain-spattered windows that stretched from floor to ceiling. The glow of a pair of fireplaces danced upon a great navy carpet that stretched the length of the room, dotted with relaxing furniture here and there – no doubt easing the burden of late-night studying. Most spectacular of all, a dome of glistening stars hung overhead, giving Lily the feeling that she looked about not inside a tower on a dreary, rainy night, but under a clear curtain of twinkling constellations.

Well, at least this wasn't so bad.

Taking a cue from the others, Lily hurried off to a staircase behind and to the left of a great marble statue of a tall, stately woman. _Rowena Ravenclaw_ , _founder_ , read its nameplate. She carried a wand in one hand pressed to her heart, the other dangling a pair of scales by her side.

As they climbed the stairs, one of the eight other first-year girls ahead of her giggled, "Nathan," before pushing another girl away with a smile.

Remembering the prefect's advice – order, she supposed – Lily hesitated and said, "He, er, seems kind of alright."

The one who admired Nathan, a black-haired, stocky girl with thick eyebrows only just avoided connecting, looked back at her as if she was an alien. "Who are – oh, you're, uh. Who are you?"

"That's Lily. She's too good to sit with us, Marie," the girl she pushed said, pulling the other girl away.

A taller girl, one who'd sat next to Natalie back during the feast, pushed past them and grumbled to the one who'd last spoken, "Just go up, Kaya. I want to go to bed. I'm tired."

Lily hung back. Shoot. Of course: All these girls probably were excited to be here, whereas she was wondering what could have been had the Sorting Hat swerved left instead of right. Then sitting with the third-years rather than with her near classmates – _ugh, why am I such an idiot?_ She beat herself up mentally as she followed the others up into a spacious bedroom, adorned with nine large beds complete with blue-and-bronze curtains pulled about them. _Can you not screw one thing up today?_ Trunks stood around each bed, pulled up from the train earlier. _Why do you do these things when nobody else has any trouble?_

The tall girl let her brown hair out of a bun and popped open her trunk in the nearest bed to the door. Just as she did, Natalie reached forward and grabbed a nightgown from it, rushing to the other side of the room while shouting, "Come and get it, Evie!"

"Nat, give it, I'm tired!"

"Come and get it and you can go to sleep!"

As much as she protested, Evie laughed as she ran after Natalie. They were only a few feet away, but to Lily, they were a world apart. Tired, frustrated, and ready to quit here and now, Lily slumped into a bed beside a wide window overlooking the dark outside, pulled the curtains shut, changed into her nightgown, and let the pounding rain lull her to sleep.

* * *

James had been right about one thing: Ghostly Professor Binns deserved his boring reputation. No sooner had Lily sat down in her first History of Magic class with the other first-years of her house did Binns begin lecturing.

"To begin with the history of this very castle," he announced the moment Lily's rear touched her seat, "We must look to its founding. When Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga –"

"Wasn't the castle built over much older ruins?"

The girl Natalie had stolen the nightgown from, Evie, spoke up before Binns had even finished two sentences. The ghost glanced over his shoulder, his mouth ajar, and the rest of him facing the blackboard in his dark and dreary classroom deep in the bowels of the castle. A fly buzzed against the only window in the room, a plain, foggy pane that Lily looked towards in desperation. _Please tell me all classes won't be a ghost droning_.

"There is no –" said Professor Binns, squinting despite the shadowy room, helped little by the milky, late summer sunlight. "You are?"

"Evie Corner. My father said he'd heard –"

"History is not hearsay," Binns said, turning away from Evie. The girl looked disappointed, scowling and jamming her quill against her open copy of _A History of Magic_. Behind her, Wayne Torres exaggerated a giant yawn, earning giggles from both Marie and Kaya, as well as two other girls nearby Lily didn't know the names of. Lily'd sat right in the middle of the room in an attempt to be social, but five minutes in, this class proved the wrong one for diplomacy.

Thirty minutes passed with no improvement as the morning slogged on, so slow that Lily imagined a snail would've outrun the ticking of time. _On the bright side, at least I studied the book_ , she thought, thanking her brother for his "Sorting Test" rumor. Behind her, Natalie drooled onto an open page. Even eager Evie slumped forward onto her elbows, her palms digging into her cheeks as she struggled to pay attention.

"…created numerous magical protections for the castle," Binns droned, obvious to the game of parchment football Wayne and another boy, Amir Khoury, had engaged in behind him. "Such protections prevented the incursions of practitioners of dark magic from the grounds, as well as those with hostile intent. Those defenses were upgraded during the late stages of the Second Wizarding War two decades ago, and increased recently to prevent against deceptive magic such as the Imperius Curse from working properly within Hogwarts's protective shell."

"Goal!" whispered Amir loudly, launching his parchment between Wayne's fingers. Binns didn't notice.

History of Magic drew on seemingly forever, and by the time Lily escaped the classroom and headed towards the Great Hall for lunch, she felt as if most of her brain had leaked out of her ears. How was it possible that anyone could make Bathilda Bagshot interesting by comparison?

As soon as Lily reached the Great Hall's entrance, however, Albus cornered her.

"I tried to find you all breakfast," he said, his eyes questioning. "Where were you?"

"Not hungry," said Lily, avoiding his stare. She'd scarfed down food in less than five minutes in actuality, not looking for a repeat of the previous night's dinner – or worse, being left alone in a corner of the table to be gawked at for the whole morning. "Can I get lunch?"

"Can we talk?"

She tried to push past him, but Al pulled her back by a shoulder. "Al, I have some class after this. Charms or whatever. Can I just eat?"

"Are you doing okay?" he asked. "I have a class too, but I just want to know. You looked awful after the Sorting."

"I'm fine."

"You're not fine, you talk to me too much when you're fine. What's wrong? Did James say anything stupid to you?"

"No. Can I just go?"

"Lils, c'mon."

"What? You're probably just fine without me bugging in," Lily protested, failing to push her brother away. "You and James and Rose and everyone."

Al took a step back and frowned. "You're still mad about being Sorted? Lily, your house is fine. It's a great place to be. I told you that back home that it doesn't matter. Heck, Dad and Mum'll be proud to bursting. All the smart kids come from Ravenclaw."

"Not Aunt Hermione!"

"Fine, one exception. Sis, please. You keep acting like a victim and you'll become one. You're better than that."

"How do you know?"

"Well, we did sort of grow up together. Look, you don't have to be like everyone in our family. You shouldn't be. You're Lily, not a clone of James or me, nor Mum and Dad. Make friends and have fun. It's your life, not everyone else's to decide. You're supposed to smile at Hogwarts, not cry."

Lily forced a smile despite a tear trickling down her cheek. "See?" Al said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I know going away from home like this's hard. I'm still here to talk about it. Dunno if it means anything, but I think you're doing brilliantly."

"You're going to end up a prefect or something," Lily sniffled.

"Yeah, Mum'd love that. Never hear the end of it," said Al, grinning. "Go write her, okay? She'll want to hear from you. So'll Dad. Just talk to me when you want. James too. He's a nut, yeah, but he's proud of you. Serious."

Lily smiled, legitimately this time, and hurried off for lunch. Al urged her to take her own path, but every day he turned out more like their father than Lily cared to admit. As far as brothers went, though, he wasn't bad.


	6. The Ink of the Unknown

_**Big thanks to allthingsbright, Son of Whitebeard, SpiltInk16, and luluguineapig (x2!) for the awesome reviews! You guys are great. Promise Lily won't be so downtrodden and anxiety-ridden forever, haha. Bit of an expository chapter to set up later events.  
**_

* * *

An information overload swallowed up Lily over the next few days. Classes dumped a brain of new information on her, starting in Potions, where the stern Professor Piper – also the head of Hufflepuff – started her joint class of Ravenclaw and Slytherin first-years on course material from the get-go.

"You can get a lot wrong with just a little effort. The less explosions and accidents we have, the hassle for me, and the less of you end up in the infirmary. Healer Justman's already told me he'd rather not spend all his time fixing what could have been avoided. So safety and patience first," she growled the moment class had kicked off. To Lily, Professor Piper's strong jaw and short, reddish-brown hair made her look some someone'd crossed a young dragon with a Doberman. She had the attitude for the resemblance, at least.

Transfiguration proved a much more lax class, with the lanky, young-looking Professor Yaro transfixing Marie and Kaya from the get-go with his long, swishy silver hair and the lute behind his desk. He pulled everyone's attention when, halfway through a lesson that involved almost nothing to do with the course and more to do with him fielding questions and drawing out long-winded answers, Evie asked him what house he'd been in.

"I didn't go to Hogwarts as a child," he said, making one of Ravenclaw's first-year boys, Trent Thorpe, sit up in a hurry from where he'd been staring idly out the window in the seat next to Lily. "I went to the Durmstrang Institute. My uncle came to Hogwarts for a year in…1994, that was the year, as part of the Triwizard Tournament held here. It's a lovely castle. I decided to come myself."

There was Herbology with Professor Longbottom, who seemed more obsessive and less clumsy in the classroom than from outside based on what Lily remembered. There was Charms, with Slytherin's Head of House, the kind-eyed and stumpy Professor Teague ("She's in Slytherin? Was the Hat feeling sick?" wondered Evie.) There was even Ravenclaw's own Head, Defense Against the Dark Arts's Professor Adeline Morrigan, an old witch who still had a spring in her step despite her thinning hair and wrinkle-lined face. If not for Herbology, in fact, Lily considered Defense Against the Dark Arts her most energetic class.

"You might think defending against spirits and ghosts is a waste of time for your first year's course, given the kinds we have floating about our halls," Professor Morrigan said, pulling out her wand in a snap, "but if you face off with an angry wraith and you don't know what you're doing – _whap!_ You're brain-dead in St. Mungo's for the rest of your days!"

She shot a blue blast at the wall for effect, lighting a stack of parchment on fire with sparks from the burst.

By the end of her first week, Lily felt ready to fall over from the immersion. Lack of sleep caught up with her, something that wasn't helped by her fellow first-years. From Evie and Marie's fawning over Kaya's powder blue Pygmy Puff ("I just want to hold him forever!") to Natalie's attempt at exploring the boys' dormitory ("They were still up. I'll try again later. Logan foiled me."), Lily felt thankful she'd gotten any sleep at all. Every time something happened in the dormitory, it was always those four sticking together – or the other four girls in their clique, a group Lily dubbed the "Hogsmeade Four." They'd grown up together in the village just outside Hogwarts in Hogsmeade's growth following the last war, and, apparently led by a thin but pugnacious-looking blonde named Sara Garner, they had their own inside jokes, tales, and ways of doing things. If it was even possible, Lily felt less able to fit in with them than she did with Evie's posse.

By the time Friday rolled around, Lily felt ready to pass out. Worse, midnight on Friday marked the first-years' first Astronomy class. The climb up the Astronomy Tower staircase felt like dragging lead up a hill.

Lily was the first one to the top of the tower. A wide, circular portico stretched out from the door. Twenty shiny telescopes ringed the stone portico, each aimed up at a perfect, starry sky. The rains of earlier in the week had given way to the last warm stretch before the autumn chill set in, and even the evening felt unseasonably nice for September.

At the far end of the portico stood Professor Vos. He looked even bigger in the dim light of a crescent moon, his back turned to the door as he faced out towards the forest with his hands on his hips. Deep in thought, he didn't turn around for a good thirty seconds after Lily had huddled to one side of the tower.

"You're pretty early," he murmured in a strong, thick accent, throwing another glance over his shoulder. The darkness of the Forbidden Forest stretched out beside the Black Lake. "The rest of your house behind you?"

Lily looked back towards the door. Truth be told, she'd come up here on her own. "I guess."

"Your friends come with you up here?"

She shrugged and looked down. That'd require calling the other Ravenclaws friends.

Figuring something was amiss, Professor Vos folded his arms, stared at her with a frown for a moment, and pulled out his wand. He summoned ten of the telescopes and whisked them away towards the covered wooden tower array to the portico's left, sending them out of sight into the darkness. "You guys can pair up tonight."

That only sent another jolt through Lily's stomach. _Oh, great_. If everyone paired up, that meant the Hogsmeade Four would stick together, and Evie, Kaya, Natalie, and Marie would huddle up, as well – leaving Lily with whoever was the odd man out among the eleven first-year boys. _Why?!_

Natalie and Logan walked through the tower door a minute later, locked in an argument. "Why're you even tryin' to come up into our room anyway?" Logan asked, looking cold. "Are you trying to steal something?"

"I just want to see it," Natalie hissed at him. "Sorry if I triggered you. I guess exploring's illegal."

"It's annoying, that's what. Go explore the dungeons or the bottom of the lake."

They quieted when they saw Professor Vos, his back turned again and facing off towards the forest. As soon as the other Ravenclaws arrived, Vos waved his wand at the door, closing it before clearing his throat.

"My name's Jurre Vos," he said, his eyes darting over each student. "This's my second year at Hogwarts, first full-time after replacing Professor Altair last spring. Before that I spent two years elsewhere in Britain, and before that, ten years in Germany with their Ministry of Magic."

"Did you go to Hogwarts?"

Vos didn't look the least bit perturbed by the interruption. "I didn't, Amir."

"Did you go to Durmstrang? That's where Professor Yaro –" Marie started before being cut off.

"I didn't go to wizarding school," said Vos. "I was born in a conflict zone. I spent most of my childhood in a country locked in turmoil. I learned from whoever I could. I spent a lot of time as a young man outdoors and under the stars, which paid off for this class."

"Where's that?" Wayne pressed.

"South Africa," Vos said. "I was born in Rhodesia when it was still called that, and my mother, a witch, fled me with when the country was falling in '78. I had magical blood and knew it, but for my childhood, I learned how Muggles live. For those of you who grew up in wizarding households, that's something you shouldn't pass up – especially here, because Astronomy's the only field you'll learn at Hogwarts where the Muggles have kept pace with us."

"How's that?" Evie asked.

"Muggles landed on the moon. In two decades they'll have a man on Mars. When'd you hear of a wizard or witch doing that?"

Wayne snickered. "So if I invent a broom that reaches Jupiter…"

"First, you'll be rich," said Vos. "Secondly, take me with you."

The class laughed, and even Lily couldn't help but smile. Professor Vos related well with his class despite being such a new teacher, and it wasn't long before he ushered them into the material. "First class'll just be easing into things," he said, sweeping his hand towards the telescopes. "We've got a clear night, so I'm going to give you a couple constellations and what they look like. It's up to you and a partner to find them." People immediately started looking to one another, but Vos held up a hand, glanced at Lily, and added, "Your assigned partner."

Groans met his addendum as Vos pointed towards the first telescope. "Kaya Davies and Wayne Torres on that one. Natalie Hightower and Logan Howe on the one next to it." Logan and Natalie stared dagger at each other. "Evie Corner and Lily Potter on this one."

Astronomy with Evie proved to be a trying experience. She frowned at Lily when walking up to the telescope with the parchment Professor Vos had given them. "Lemme see," she said, pulling the parchment away and scouring it for the constellations they had to find. "Lemme look first."

Lily didn't have much of a say in it. She stood by as Evie commandeered the telescope, angling it up towards a patch of stars in the northern sky. Despite the professor's best intentions, Lily wished she'd gotten one of the boys as a partner, considering she didn't know them as well yet. Next to her, Logan peered through the telescope as Wayne from one station over flicked Natalie's shoulder. "What's up?" he said with a grin. "Oh, the tower, of course. It's pretty high."

"Woo, you're hilarious. My sides fell off."

When Lily got her chance on the telescope, things weren't much better. "You're looking at the wrong thing," Evie groaned. "That's not Cassiopeia, Lily. It's the zig-zag. The M shape. Look at the parchment. Professor, Cassiopeia's the M shape, right?"

 _Ugh._ The girl had a way of making Lily feel even more stupid. Well, at least in Evie's case, the Sorting Hat had gotten it right.

* * *

"Your House Head's nice, at least. Er – is your common room alright?"

Lily fumbled as she walked along the shore of the Black Lake with Hugo. She'd taken Sunday's last flicker of good weather to get outside and see her cousin, who she hadn't spoken with since their arrival. The Slytherins were on the complete other side of the castle in the dungeons from Ravenclaw Tower, and the only class they shared, Potions, had been a rush of note-taking so far. Lily'd even missed him coming out of the classroom after both classes.

She'd only managed this by corralling Hugo at lunch, much as Al had done to her on her first day of classes. Her cousin looked even more lost than she felt.

"It's gloomy," he mumbled. All the chaotic joy Lily knew Hugo for had abandoned him. "It's all green and stony and dark."

"Well, it's a dungeon," said Lily, trying and failing to make light of the situation as Hugo's face fell further. "There anyone nice there?"

Hugo didn't answer, didn't so much as shake his head, but Lily knew the answer by the way he pitched a rock at the water. It was such a stupid situation. At least if they'd missed Gryffindor, the Hat could've put them in the same house – that way they'd have each other to fall back on. This way, neither was happy and both felt out of place. What was the point of that?

"The Hat told me it almost put Al in Slytherin," Lily said, still trying to cheer Hugo up. "Or James. I don't know which brother it meant. So it's kind of a family thing, I guess."

Hugo glared at her. "It's not a family thing! No one else is lurking in the dungeons like a troll."

"I know, I know," she said, trying to rectify the situation. _Better not mention what's up in Ravenclaw._ "Look, Dad told – I mean, Al told me that Dad told him his first year on the train platform that he'd be proud if he went in Slytherin. I think everyone's fine with you. You're not a troll. Have you talked with Rose?"

"I'm not talking to Rose."

"Hugo, it's okay. Just please – "

He pushed her away, glowering as he growled, "I'm going in, Lily. I guess I'll see you."

Lily wrung her hands as her cousin stomped away from her back towards the castle in the fading afternoon sunlight. She was being a hypocrite, really, parroting Al's lines to Hugo when she herself didn't much believe in them. How else was she supposed to help him cheer up, however? She could deal with her own mess, as ugly as it was, but watching Hugo sink into depression hurt a lot more.

She sat down on a rock near the treeline on the edge of the forest, tossing a rock into the water and watching the ripples spread out in all directions. This was the rippling of being part of a family that everyone knew, she guessed. Sooner or later, a Potter and a Weasley couldn't be part of Gryffindor. _Why'd it have to be us, though, and why can't we at least have a couple friends to help?_

"That was kind of you."

Lily looked up and caught her breath. There was no one there, just a dainty, faint voice in the breeze. "Hello?"

Something glowed milky white in the trees. Lily stood up as it approached, her heart rushing as a ghostly woman peeped out from the shadows of the forest edge. "Sorry," the ghost said, peeking out from behind a poplar. "It's harder to see me in the day."

For being a ghost, she was…well, _gorgeous_. In life, the girl must have had suitors galore: She looked about sixteen or seventeen by Lily's eye, with long, straight hair reaching down to her waist. Her almond eyes widened as she drew closer, one hand pressed to her heart-shaped face, the other hidden behind her willowing gown. The dress was charmingly antique, something that would have been the height of fashion trends a century before.

"I – I didn't know you were there," Lily stammered, backing away.

The ghost looked hurt. "I didn't mean to intrude."

"No. You weren't. I mean, you kind of were, but I didn't – are you one of the ghosts of the castle?"

The young woman stared up at Hogwarts's towers with a mournful expression. "I once lived there. A long time ago. Now I just watch it."

There was such a sadness in her voice that Lily drew closer, still out of the forest but enough that she didn't have to speak loud enough for everyone to hear. "You can't go inside?"

The ghost shook her head and pointed to the ground between them. "Hogwarts's protections end between us, here at the edge of the forest. They don't let me past them."

"Well, that's –"

"No!" the ghost cried as Lily took a step forward. "Stay! There's –" She looked backwards into the woods behind her. If a ghost could feel fear, Lily expected she was filled with it. "Don't come in the woods. Don't come any closer."

Lily bit her tongue. What? James and Al had said – but Mr. Fawcett – what? "What's in the woods?"

The ghost shook her head, as if telling would lead Lily to do something stupid. "Your name's Lily?"

"Yeah. Lily Potter."

"Then stay out of the woods, Lily Potter. One's enough for dead students in the forest."

Lily scrunched her brow. "One? Who – " she cut off in mid-question as the ghost pulled back. _Oh. Oh God._ "You – "

"You're a Ravenclaw?" the ghost said, eying her uniform. She managed herself a slight smile for a moment. "I was a Hufflepuff. It's hard to remember sometimes, but there was a common room near the kitchens…it was earthy and warm. Yellow and brown light. A pair of - " In a flash, the ghost's expression turned dour again. "I've almost forgotten it. Go back to the castle, Lily. You're a nice girl in speaking with the sad boy. Don't end up like the centaur last year."

Lily swallowed hard as she remembered Al's recollection from the summer. _Supposedly Hagrid found a dead centaur on the edge of the woods…_ "What's happening in there?"

"Go back!" the ghost shouted, and before Lily could protest, it was gone, disappearing away into the shadows of the trees as the afternoon daylight died.


	7. Mice and Mermen

_**Luluguineapig and allthingsbright, huge thanks for the praise, guys! And right on, the ghost does indeed have a part to play in things ahead – and a pretty big story behind her, haha. Not gonna spoil it. Virtual hugs are always lovely =) Also, fair warning, this is not the happiest of chapters.  
**_

* * *

"C'mon. Go drop your things off in your common room and meet me in the back corridor on the ground floor."

Lily nearly ran face-first into James as she left a snooze-worthy Transfiguration class, still trying to press _A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration, 2_ _nd_ _Ed._ into her bag. "James – why?"

James pulled her away from the corridor as one of the Hogsmeade Four pointed and giggled, "Oh, who's he?"

"Al said you're still being antisocial," said James, looking as if he was readying himself to undergo surgery rather than meet his sister for the afternoon. "I don't know what you're doing, but if I have to get you out and talking to people who aren't going to bite, then I'll do it. Mostly because the prospect of an entirely depressing winter break makes me nauseous."

"I'm doing just fine, thank you," Lily said, scowling and wrenching away from her brother. "I have homework to do. I have to go to the library."

"Don't give me that Ravenclaw cop-out," James said. Upon seeing his sister's face fall, he stammered, "Er – alright, that wasn't what I meant. Just go put your things away and bring your butt downstairs. And don't wriggle away, or I'm going to write Uncle George and tell him to beat you over the head with a dungbomb or something."

 _One of which I still have_ , Lily thought, retreating towards Ravenclaw Tower. She'd left the dungbomb George had given her in her trousers, packing them away in her trunk. For a moment she considered just giving it to James – _he'll probably make better use of it_ – before shaking off the thought. For all she knew, he really would use it on her. Better to hang on to it for safekeeping.

"Hark!" barked the eagle statue as Lily made it to the top of the tower. "Answer me this question, ye! Animal and verb am I, harassing, and black and white. I'm loyal to a fault and fair, and under a yellow banner I…I run out of rhymes. Something about Hogwarts. That's enough, honestly. Just answer it."

Lily frowned. "What kind of riddle is that?"

"Oh hurry up, or I'll have to think up another. Come on."

"A badger."

"Was that so hard?" said the statue. "Now I'll badger you if you don't go through."

She ignored the statue, dumped her school supplies, and hurried down to the ground floor of the castle. "Not all badgers are black and white," she mumbled as she headed out the door again.

"You think up a stupid riddle!" the statue shouted at her as she jogged down the tower staircase.

James loitered at the great oaken doors that led to Hogwarts's rear grounds. He smirked at a pair of younger girls from Hufflepuff who eyed him as they passed, spotted Lily, and led her out into the nippy autumn air. The last vestiges of summer had given way to the first chills of late September. The sun sank lower in the sky, and red and yellow leaves sprouted here and there on the trees. Less students hung about on the grounds, and those who did clutched colorful scarves to their faces and tightened their robes about their shoulders to ward off the falling temperatures.

"Where are we going?" Lily said, hiding her face in her robes in a futile attempt to ward off a sharp breeze.

James pointed to a large, run-down hut off in the distance, a bit off of the Black Lake and huddled against the edge of the Forbidden Forest. "Hagrid's. I already went to see Hagrid a week ago. He said you never even came by, even though he's definitely sure he told Mum and Dad you were invited to come down. If Al's complaining, and Hagrid's noticing, then I guess I have to do all the work here and satisfy everyone."

"Mum and Dad never said – "

"Lily, Hagrid's visited our bloody _home_. More times than I have fingers on one hand. Even Al visited him his first year, and Al's, well, Al."

"Al's the smart one anyway. Of course he would."

James gave her a look of disgust. "I don't even know what you're spewing. You heretic. Next Hagrid's gonna say that, and I'm gonna have to vomit."

Reubus Hagrid's shack was a far cry from the stone towers of the castle. Bright wooden planks stood out against older, weathered wood here and there, as if the shack had been hit by lightning or caught in fire sometime in the pat and repaired haphazardly. Wisps of gray smoke curdled above a brick chimney. The wind rustled the thatch roof with each gust, making Lily question just how sturdy the dwelling was. Pumpkins the size of small cars dotted a small garden beside the hut, colossal orange icebergs in a sea of green and brown.

"Auror's Office," James shouted, banging on the front door with his fist.

He jumped back as the door burst open. Hagrid accumulated gray hairs at an impressive rate – almost the same speed at which his beard seemed to grow thicker. "Yeh joker," he laughed, clapping James on the shoulder and nearly catapulting him into the pumpkin patch. "Yeh even brought friends wit' yeh this time! Though' I'd scared her off after the boats."

Lily blushed upon being put on the spot. "No."

"No, she says," Hagrid snorted, breaking out into a big smile. "Well git in, then, so I don' have ter hold the door open."

A crackling fire warmed the cozy interior of the hut, throwing up hazy shadows across the dusk-like lighting. Pots, pans, cutting boards, bits of fence, heads of lettuce, and everything in between cluttered about. In the corner, the world's largest, black-haired pot-bellied pig snacked on a cabbage the size of a head.

"Don' get too slobbery, Mouse," said Hagrid as the pig sprung up and hurried to the new visitor. "Ah, what's the point?"

Lily allowed herself a smile as she petted the giant furry beast inspecting her trainers. "Hi, you." When she looked up, her brother offered her a strangely decent smile.

"Can't you get puppies or something one of these days?" said James.

"Nah, I'd pro'ly sit on 'em by mistake," Hagrid said, pouring himself a cup of tea. James turned him down when he offered it up, and Lily, following her brother's lead, followed suit. "'Sides, that's a lil' too much energy fer me, James. Even yer dad said I'm gettin' old, an' he's not young these days."

James waved off his concern. "Nah, that's not old. That's just…advanced age."

"Or old," Hagrid laughed, spilling tea on the table. Some of it splattered the pig, Mouse, making it snort and almost knock Lily over. "But Al's always been the smarter one o'you lot." He beamed at Lily as James made a gagging noise. "Not anymore though, huh? Family's firs' Ravenclaw! Yer Aunt Hermione'll be doin' backflips. Someone ter go ter the library with, heh."

"That's why it's weird that she's ashamed of it," James said a little too loud. "Even though I know for a fact that Mum and Dad have sent her a couple letters that she hasn't answered."

Lily gritted her teeth and focused all her attention on petting Mouse. Yes, she had to figure all this out, but James didn't need to go throwing it all out in the open like that. At least Al could be subtle. The last thing she needed was a flood of pity, and from a teacher of all people. She had gotten a pair of letters from her parents, true, but she'd been too anxious to open them, fearing what lay written inside.

"Aw, why's that?" Hagrid asked between sips of tea. "Perfectly great house. I remember ol' Flitwick was from there. Great man. 'Bout the size of a puppy, but a great man all the same."

"It's just not what I thought was going to happen," Lily mumbled, unable to make eye contact with either of her companions.

Hagrid chuckled. "Ah, tha's how it is, innit? Doubt yer mum wanted her up-and-down firs' year – that was a righ' mess. Almost closed down the school. Doubt yer dad wanted a lot o'things. Look at 'em now. We're a month into the year. Everyone's still gettin' used to things. Heck, yer aunt and uncle weren't even friends until a lil' after Halloween, if I remember righ'. Now look at 'em. Got two of yer cousins to handle. Yeh can't go lookin' too closely ahead, or you'll miss a whole lot that migh' not be ready ter show up yet. Yeh'll make friends and do fine. Yeh tried makin' an effort to reach out ter the others in yer year?"

"According to Al, that's the problem," James answered for Lily.

"Well, there yeh go," said Hagrid, downing his tea. "No one's gonna work if yeh can'. This is a lil' too mopey for me, so come on, both of yeh. Come see the pumpkins I get readyin' for Halloween. Gonna be the size o'hippogriffs by the time I'm done with 'em. Even convinced some o'the house-elves to use 'em for pies."

Lily didn't know whether to feel better or worse about her predicament after that. According to James and Hagrid, it came down to, "Try harder," in nicer terms. Well that was all well and good, but where was the opportunity to do so? Every class she attended, everyone else clumped up in their groups – the boys with each other, the Hogsmeade Four in their pack, Evie and her posse in their foursome. How was she supposed to invite herself into one of those groups?

"There's a non-pig mouse in your pumpkin patch," Lily settled on, stepping away from a red-eyed, white mouse that jumped about erratically from pumpkin to pumpkin. It looked possessed, almost insane as it dashed about, bashing its head on one pumpkin before scurrying across the entire patch to the largest one.

"Git outta here," Hagrid gruffed, shooing it away with his boot. "Stupid things have bin comin' in over the las' few days."

James and Lily bid farewell to Hagrid as the sun arced over the horizon, leaving the last orange rays of sunlight spearing across the sky. They walked past the lake, where the water coalesced into small waves in the brisk wind. A flight of decks flew away as they approached, rustled and heading off for higher ground towards the castle ramparts.

"Look, sis," James said, tossing a stone from hand to hand before pitching it off into the lake. "Al and I figured it out. It's coming down to one thing: You're assuming everyone's going to hate you before you even find out if that's true. Am I the only one that sounds stupid to?"

"Prefect said that already," Lily murmured.

"Well, why don't you listen to your prefect? I wouldn't have to have these awkward chats then."

"'Cuz Nathan's kind of a tosser."

James frowned. "Tall guy who tries to be a pretty boy? Sixth year?"

"Yeah."

"Ah. Yeah, he's a monstrous tosser. Alright. What classes do you have groups in?"

Lily shrugged. "Astronomy."

"Well, then – "

"No! No. No, I know Evie thinks I'm an idiot."

"Doubt it, but let's say that's right. What else?"

She bit her tongue, thinking. "Herbology."

"Alright. No, stop – next time you're in Herbology, you talk to your group and you don't just sit there like a silent slug. Got it?"

"I'm not a slug."

"Well, it's the – " James paused, staring at something in the lake. "What the?"

Lily followed his gaze. Something lapped against the shore, something dark, bloated, and mushy. Before her brother could stop her, she hurried up to the blob. Only when she got close enough to make it out in the waning light did she pause, her breath freezing in her lungs.

It was a merman. Or, it had been a merman – he was dead, and by the looks of it had been so for hours at least. Purple blotches bubbled up all across his skin, and his legs had swelled up like salamis. The merman's eyes gaped wide, but not like a normal corpse's eyes. Instead, the body stared as if it had seen something horrible, something that made it gape in a terrified, silent, eternal shout. One of the merman's clawed hands had dug so hard into the creature's skull that it had implanted in the skin, leaving long welts behind it. Its other arm dangled in the water, three of its claws torn off. Perhaps most frighteningly, a thick, belt-like welt dug into the merman's abdomen, compressing it into a far smaller diameter than the rest of its torso. Something had squeezed it, something so terrifying it had left behind quite an impression on the creature's face.

"Holy – " James breathed.

Lily shuddered. "Did the squid do that?"

"Squid doesn't attack merpeople," said James, his voice no longer brash and bold but hesitant and careful. He grabbed his sister by the shoulders and stared her in the eye. "Lily, stay here. I'm gonna get – uh, I'm gonna get Professor Longbottom, already? He's close by, probably. You make sure that doesn't go anywhere. Wait – if anything comes, if anything doesn't look right, you get out of here, okay?"

"James, what is – "

"I don't know what this is, sis. Just stay put, okay? I'll be right back. Right back."

He dashed off across the grounds towards the Herbology greenhouses, leaving Lily feeling very alone. The other students had gone in for the most part, leaving only one or two stragglers lingering far closer to the castle – much too far for her to shout to them if the merman decided to come back to life as a demon or something.

 _Ugh_ , it was horrifying. Lily forced herself to look at the bobbing body in grotesque awe. It wasn't the welt that disgusted her the most, nor the swelling, but the creature's terrible expression. If anything, it didn't seem like physical trauma had killed the merman, but mental trauma. Lily's gut reaction told her the merman had seen something so horrifying it had died of shock, giving itself a stroke or seizure or whatever merpeople suffered out of sheer fright. Insanity, even, given the gaping mouth and the claw sticking into its skull.

A thought came back to her. Not the squid, but something else living in here, something else she'd seen the last time she'd seen Hagrid, in fact. An oozing, octopus-slug thing perched on a rock, sporting far too many eyes and slimy tentacles, dropping into the water as the boats neared the castle…

"Where is it?"

She looked up as James led not just Professor Longbottom towards her, but also the Headmaster. Maribor looked beyond perturbed, his eyebrows so narrowed that he looked like an eagle as he walked up. Professor Longbottom looked far more confused, doubling down when he saw the merman's corpse.

"Merlin," he breathed. "That's not just dead."

"Mutilated. Or something close to it," the Headmaster said, squatting down next to the body and inspecting it. "Grabbed by something and…induced cardiac arrest, maybe. Something else." He looked back at Lily and James, and then nodded towards Professor Longbottom. "Neville, bring Jurre down here. This is what he does well."

As soon as Professor Longbottom was good, the Headmaster rounded on Lily and James. "You two just _found_ this here?"

"We didn't kill it, if that's what you're asking," James protested.

"That's not what I'm asking," growled the Headmaster, "because neither of you know how to kill like that. If you even know at all. I'm asking if you were digging around in the forest and stumbled across this."

Lily's eyes widened, and she felt her heart skip a beat. "No! We were at Hagrid's – "

"He can vouch," James finished, putting his arm out in front of her to stop her from saying anything more. "We were walking back to the castle for supper, and this was bobbing here."

Maribor tightened his lips. He glanced between the two of them as if judging their truthfulness before saying, "Fine. This is a matter for staff now, not either of you. I don't want either of you at supper in the Great Hall. You'll go to Professor Longbottom's office and eat there. He'll join you once he returns to me with Professor Vos. When you're done, you can return to your common rooms."

"And," the Headmaster added before they could turn to leave, "Neither of you will say a word of this to any of your fellow students. Not your brother, not your family, not your friends."

"We won't," James said, grabbing Lily's hand in warning. "Neither of us. I'll make sure my sister doesn't."

"Let me tell you something about your freedom of speech," said Maribor, his gaze growing even darker. "I don't care what derisive names you make up for me or your fellow students. That doesn't bother me. But the moment you start spreading taller and taller tales about some sort of merpeople slaughter is the moment you incite a panic. That's when you'll take responsibility for hurting others, and I won't have that in my castle. I'll drop the hammer on the both of you. I doubt your father would be very impressed, either. Now go."

James tugged Lily away, but she couldn't help but cast one last look towards the merman's corpse. Its head lolled from side to side in the tide, staring at her with those bulging eyes and that black pit of a mouth, screaming at her with a voice adrift in the maw of madness.


	8. The Dark of Different Worlds

_**Really on point with your insight of Lily and her friend-making struggles so far, luluguineapig – that's exactly the kind of vibe I wanted to convey. Big thanks to lulu, allthingsbright, Casta, and AlitaMae for the reviews last chapter! I don't really have enough thanks for your kind words (and I'd love to answer all your questions, Alita, but I'd only end up sparking a whole ton more, haha. But that's good!) In this chapter, our protagonist takes a step forward and we learn a little bit more about a certain enigmatic professor. I've been pushing the plot, but I'm putting that on the backburner for one chapter to focus on characterization, given that this backstory is an important key for the broader overall story.**_

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Thunder cracked over the Astronomy Tower. _Thwack-thwack-thwack_ drummed cold autumn rain against the wooden roof of the tower loft. Lightning lit up a violent sky. Beyond the loft's entranceway, the open-air portico looked underwater with the amount of precipitation hammering it. Professor Vos's magical barrier kept out the elements from the loft, but it did nothing to quiet the storm's rumbling by even a single decibel.

Lily wished she had her flashlight. The giant, milky image of the bright side of the moon Vos had projected above the class did little to ease the darkness of the midnight hour.

"So what are the dark patches across the moon?" Vos was in the midst of saying as Lily cast another look outside.

"Seas," grunted Trent Thorpe, almost passed out in a far corner next to Amir Khoury.

Vos jabbed a finger his way. "He reads. It must be a miracle." Sara Garner and Kaya laughed at another shared desk as he went on, "But they're black. There's no water in them. Why are they called seas?"

Evie flapped her arm in the air next to Lily. "Because early Muggle astronomers thought they were filled with water and called them seas, or oceans. Wizarding astronomers knew – "

"That's good," Vos cut her off with a hand and a smile. "And that's right. Textbook couldn't say it better, although I think that's exactly what the textbook says word for word. Now – " he flicked his wand and the giant overhead map of the moon disappeared. Just as quickly, hubcap-sized two-dimensional maps sprung up on each desk. "Each of you and your partner plot out the bright side of the moon's seas and major craters on your table's map. As a bonus, show on which one the first man landed last century. If you need an incentive to stay awake, whichever group does the best won't have to write a foot of parchment on the history of lunar cartography."

"Is that from a wizarding perspective, or a Muggle one?" Evie asked the second Vos had closed his mouth.

He shrugged. "A history, in your words. It's only a foot."

Despite Lily's resistance to James's idea of talking to her fellow Ravenclaws in class, trading homework for group work motivated her to try her luck. As Evie dropped her heavy, ink-blotched copy of _Catching the Cosmos_ on their desk, Lily picked up her quill and inspected the map. The moon was all white and black splotches to her, with its face's inscriptions closer to a man or a rabbit than to any sort of stellar map.

"Well, I'd…rather not get homework," Lily offered as Evie flipped across pages of her book.

"Why?" said Evie a little too loudly.

"Well…it's homework."

Evie frowned, as if she couldn't understand the logic. "It's supposed to help you learn. I guess if you don't want to learn you don't have to do it when I get this perfectly right. I'm going to do it anyway. I'm just not interested in failing."

Left unsaid was, _although I guess you are_. Trying to start any sort of conversation with Evie that deviated from anything directly related to the assignment proved fruitless. That only picked up when Lily disagreed with one of her answers, causing her partner to flare up.

"It's the Sea of Tranquility. Mare Tranquillitatis," Evie huffed, pushing the textbook at her and jabbing a finger at the page. "Look!"

"No, I read the chapter," Lily said, heat flushing her face. "It's the Sea of Storms. I'm positive."

Evie glowered and raised her hand. "Professor!" she shouted before Vos could call on her. "The Muggles landed in the Sea of Tranquility, right?"

"The first _people_ did, right," Vos said. "And now none of the rest of you have any reason to miss that, considering Evie just told you all. Wake up, Wayne. It's barely Saturday."

Over at the table beside them, Natalie snorted. "See?" Evie growled, wrenching her book away from Lily and raising her shoulder. "Don't mess it up."

"Sorry," Lily managed.

"Just let me do it!"

Vos threw them another look, and not such an amused one, as Evie scribbled her quill across the magical moon map. Lily slumped her shoulders in defeat, sitting all the way back in her chair and letting her partner take control of the assignment. It was impossible to get anywhere with the girl. Evie had a brain to rival anyone's, sure – Aunt Hermione would have loved her – but she wasn't going to slow down and wait for others to catch up, either, Lily included.

"Perfect across the board," Vos congratulated them when inspecting the maps at the end of class. "Homework for the rest of you all. Evie and Lily get off free." As groans chorused among the other Ravenclaws, Vos leaned over and murmured to Lily, "See me after class. Stay here."

Lily looked up – _what did I do?_ – but the professor had already moved off to Wayne and Marie to answer a question.

The others filed off down the tower as the night inched towards morning, sleepiness winning the battle over concentration with the weekend coming up. Lily started again as a close flash of lightning led to a clap of thunder a mere moment afterwards. She wanted nothing more than to retreat to her bed and wake up with the storm over and gone.

"My office," said Professor Vos, nodding towards a closed door on the loft's underlevel beneath a set of sloping wooden stairs. Lily swallowed hard and tromped after him. Was he going to criticize her for letting Evie do all the work? Tell her she had to do the homework anyway, or make up with double?

Vos's office wasn't what she'd expected. Soft yellow light filtered out into the loft when he opened the door, the sound of quiet swing music drifting from a magical phonograph atop his desk. A window looked out from the front of the small room, but instead of showing the interior of the loft, it gave Lily a glimpse out over a long, grassy plain dotted with flat-topped, spindly trees, overlooked by jagged hills and mountains in the distance and a full, red moon high overhead. A herd of deer – gazelles, even, not deer – grazed in the foreground, poking their heads up to stare at the room from time to time. A bronze candlestick-like mount in the corner of the room held a fist-sized metal globe that glowed blue, giving off a thin cyan fog that clung closely and dotted with flecks like burning paper. A red and green flag emblazoned with a gold flame hung from one wall, and a long, gleaming silver dagger hung underneath it. A small fireplace across the room crackled.

 _When the last light finally dies, and the darkness crowds your eyes, when our last love runs and flies, I won't look away,_ sang the phonograph. It was a sad love song, but a moving one that threatened to lull Lily to sleep with its tenor lyrics.

Professor Vos picked up a piece of parchment scribbled with several lines of ink, his face turning down suddenly. "Bliksem," he murmured, breathing in slowly and tossing it in the fire. Sitting down at his desk, he beckoned Lily towards a plush chair beside the fire and asked, "Why don't you stand up for yourself?"

That was not what Lily had expected. "What?"

"Evie Corner's a brilliant girl," said Vos, leaning forward and looking Lily square in the eyes. "If she keeps it up, she'll have a bright future no matter where she goes. She more than has the confidence to succeed. But she also knows she's smart, and you're letting her walk all over you."

"I – " Lily stumbled, fiddling with her hands and staring down into her lap. "She, er, she was right about stuff."

"So why'd you give up?" Lily shrugged and looked at the fire. Vos was quiet for a minute, watching his glowing foggy orb as the phonograph sung on. "I understand it's hard adapting to a new circumstance, and it's doubly hard when burdened with expectations that I assume you feel," he said. "I know more than most. I can't say I understand everything that you feel, but I can understand that it's not easy. I spent a lot of my childhood leaving things behind. My home and country. My father. My mother after that. Three years ago when I came to Britain from Germany, I left behind a…a dear friend. Many friends, and I left most of them on a sour note."

Professor Vos fiddled with his wand, scowling at it as if it threatened to attack him. "You follow Quidditch?" he asked after a moment of silence. "I saw a match in person over the summer. The Falmouth Falcons and the Banchory Bangers."

Lily nodded, adding with just a hint of a smile, "I root for the Falcons."

"My condolences. They are objectively awful," Vos laughed. "The Bangers are pretty good. When I watched the match, Banchory knocked out a goal inside of fifteen seconds. In less than five minutes it was a hundred to nothing. It was obscene at first, but Falmouth's Chasers are tenacious if nothing else. Little by little they clawed their way back over the eight hour match, and by the time their Seeker secured the upset, they were actually up two-ninety to two-seventy. They'd done a remarkable job battling back despite having the worst record in the league and going down early."

He left unsaid, _so why let Evie shove you aside after one mistake?_ "Ever play with your family?" he went on. "I know your mother's side in particular is quite large." When Lily nodded, he asked, "What position do you take?"

"We don't really have enough people for two whole teams," Lily said, shrugging. "I just do Chaser."

"Do you like playing Chaser? Do you claim it, that's what I mean?"

"Well, yeah. Mum played it. It's more fun."

He nodded. "Holyhead, right? I saw her a couple times. Damn good player. But alright – I know both your brothers. Astronomy's required and all through five years, so I've seen them enough, and I know James well enough by this point to figure him out. What do you do if he tells you to play Keeper or something?"

"Just tell him to sod off," Lily said with little more than a whisper. Despite the fire's closeness, she felt cold. What was he getting at?

"Alright," Vos said, smiling. "That's also understandable. James is an…interesting guy. He's got a bright future ahead of him, too, and he's pretty smart. Very confident. Popular. He knows it. So here comes popular, confident James, telling you to play Keeper, and you tell him to sod off. What separates James from Evie?"

Lily looked away. She couldn't keep up with his stare, especially when she didn't have a good answer to the question. "I dunno."

"I don't need to answer tonight. Just something to think about," said Vos. "But it's late, and you probably want to get to bed."

"Professor – " Lily started, but backed off before she could utter another word. "Er – sorry. I'll just go."

"You've already started. You might as well finish."

She bit her lip and looked at the fire again. "When Evie…uh, asked you the question, you corrected her about saying Muggles landing on the moon. But isn't that right?"

"It is."

"So why correct it?"

Vos stared out at the enchanted window, gazing at the gazelles as they grazed. "I don't like the word Muggle," he said after a long pause. "I use it because I have to and to differentiate between magical and non-magical people when need be, but I don't like the word."

"Why?"

"I told you where I grew up. I was six when my mother took me away from Rhodesia, a day after a mob swarmed and killed the farmers who lived near us. When we got to South Africa, we were suddenly on top of the social ladder. We were white, and apartheid rule was the law of the land. Legalized segregation by something as asinine as skin color. I grew up tutored by a wizard my mother found, but because I didn't participate in public schooling, I had friends – non-magical friends – who lived on the wrong side of apartheid. I watched as my mother and I lived a life comparable to any leading country, Britain, the United States, Australia, what have you, and I watched as those unfortunate friends of mine struggled against poverty. Not a whole lot I could do about it back then, but even I could see everything wrong with the law."

"So here we are in the wizarding world," he said, leaning back in his chair and propping up his head with his hands. "We've got our International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, declaring the magical world and everything about magic to be kept secret from non-magical people at all costs. Keep the Muggles out, in blunt terms. Blood purity and all that. We heal people with the flick of a wand in St. Mungo's, they stitch them up and give patients ostomy bags. One world has all the benefits of magic, and all the benefits of technology if one is savvy enough to learn it, while the other has no magical strengths at all. You don't see the similarities?"

"I thought it was for protection," Lily murmured.

Vos nodded. "Back in the late 1600s when they codified it, yeah. But it's a different world today. At the end of the day, I just wonder whether we would've needed to bother with Lord Voldemort and blood purity and conflict at all if we could spread magic to everyone."

"But we can't."

"So maybe that's something we should look into as a people," said Vos. He shook his head and frowned. "Enough about my rambling, Lily, it's late. I doubt you're interested in laws and philosophy at this hour, as it is. We're closer to sunrise than sunset. Get some sleep, and I'll see you next week. No homework. Lucky you."

Lily scooted off her chair and made for the door. She turned around as she opened it, watching as Professor Vos considered another piece of paper before frowning, his eyes heavy as he tossed it in the fire.

Headmaster Maribor had told Professor Longbottom to fetch Vos back when she and James had found the dead merman…but it could wait. A different night to talk about that kind of thing, perhaps.


	9. Scratching an Itch

_**Thanks bunches for the review, luluguineapig! I'm happy you like the dialog - I always feel like my exposition is mediocre, so dialog and characterization's where I try to throw my emphasis.**_

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Images of gaping mermen and wind blowing over the Forbidden Forest canopy touched Lily's dreams through October. In her waking hours, views of a lonely bed, a quiet corner of the common room, and an empty seat beside her during meals remained a sour constant.

She hadn't talked to James once about the dead creature bobbing in the water. She hadn't even talked to Professor Longbottom, despite Herbology becoming one of her favorite classes. The Ravenclaws held class with the Gryffindors, and Neville let the first-years chat among themselves as they pruned their buckwither shrubs, red-leafed flora that shied away from the slightest touch, making the pruning process something of a chore.

Lily didn't mind: The din of chatter morphed together into white noise that let her concentrate on the job, and something about the hands-on nature of the task let her lose herself in the work. It didn't hurt that the group Professor Longbottom had put her in wasn't the chattiest: Between Lily, Sara Garner, and two Gryffindors, a boy named Sam Sloper and a girl named Maddie Glenmont, they didn't share a lot in common. Sam and Maddie chortled over poking fun at their Head of House and discussing the idiot things their house members did (including an off-hand mention of James once, causing both of them to hush up and throw looks Lily's way), while Sara vacillated between collecting leaves Lily pruned and talking with other members of her Hogsmeade posse from across the greenhouse.

Still, Lily couldn't scratch the itch to talk to _someone_ about what she'd seen down by the lake, as much as she yearned to chalk it up to some bad dream.

"Something different today," Professor Longbottom announced as the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws filed in for class, escaping the chilly, late October gusts for the warmer confines of the greenhouses. Yellow-stemmed plants with hideous, purple, bottle-like protrusions occupied clay pots on each table today. They were nasty: The greenhouse smelled sweet, so sweet that it Lily almost felt sick stepping inside, and clear, sap-like ooze trickled down from the mouths of the protrusions.

At the front of the class, Alroy McLaggen and Raimie Abdul made faces of disgust. "You sure that's a plant, professor?" Alroy said as if he'd catch disease from standing in the vicinity of one of them.

"Not just any plant, but a real useful one," Professor Longbottom said, hurrying over to the nearest pot. "These are Burundian Redpitchers. They're carnivorous, like normal pitcher plants, only these aggressively pull in small insects and other tiny creatures that set foot on these bottle tubes on the outside. But these test tube-like bulbs surrounding the bottles, that's what we're getting at. Each of those contains the toxin that the redpitcher injects into its sap to kill what it eats. But for us, it's not so much of a toxin but a widely-used antitoxin. It's got over three hundred uses, including – "

The professor looked up to see forty blank expressions. "Er – getting a little ahead of myself. It's just that this is really a remarkable plant that – uh, that can wait. Anyway, you all are collecting the antitoxin from the bulbs. I'll explain in more detail in a minute, but first I wanted to throw down something different. You've all been working hard, so I thought we could have a contest for the rest of the autumn term. The house that manages to get the most by winter break wins fifty points."

"But our groups are mixed," Evie protested, shooting an uncertain glance towards Alroy and Raimie, who she'd been grouped with previously.

This seemed to vex Neville for a moment. "Right. Brilliant. New groups, then."

Lily ended up around a table with Natalie, Logan, and Wayne. The former two scowled at each other, although Lily figured Nat secretly was eager to get away from her previous group with Alroy. The two still hadn't figured out how to get along, all the way from the boat ride to a quarter of the way through their first year. Given how Lily had overheard – as if it were possible to avoid – Alroy lamenting his failure to make the Gryffindor Quidditch team's Seeker spot on, "Not even hiding their bias, the captain on that team. Ridiculous. I was the best player by far."

 _Right, guy._ James's complaint that Al hadn't even shown up for Quidditch tryouts had bothered Lily for a day or two, but she'd shaken it off. Maybe he'd been sick. He was only a third-year. Not so bad. Anyway, Ravenclaw hadn't even had any open spots, so it hadn't affected her much.

"Why is it a red pitcher when the bulb things are purple?" Natalie said, pulling on a pair of dragonskin gloves and wrapping a black apron around her waist. "Also, this thing is ghastly."

Someone shrieked from across the greenhouse. "Forgot to mention," Professor Longbottom announced, "They can, er, burst just a mite if you don't puncture them carefully at the bottom tip of each bulb. More like blow up, really. It's only bad in your eyes. And bad for clothes. You can even drink the stuff – heck, that's how it makes such a good antitoxin. In fact, three different Ministries of Magic in Africa – "

"Right. That's useful," said Logan, rolling his eyes and reaching for the first bulb.

Natalie pulled his hand back, dangling a pair of safety goggles from her finger. "Safety first!" she chimed. "Or the ghastly plant will burst!"

"That's like one of those horrible rhyming riddles the doorknob gives us," Wayne snorted.

"I know, right? It just stopped halfway through one the other day. Claimed it'd forgotten it. Made me answer anyway, though."

Lily pulled her goggles over her eyes, tied her hair back, and inspected the redpitcher. It really _was_ ghastly: Tiny white pustules dotted the central bottle protrusions, with smaller, black dots jutting out from the smooth surfaces of the bulbs. It was as if zits covered the plants, and the sweet stench made Lily's stomach rebel.

Halfway through the class, she noticed Logan didn't say much, either, even though Lily had seen Wayne and him together all the time. As the other two bantered back and forth, he frowned and focused on pinching the bottommost zits that released the gooey antitoxins from the bulbs. Lily was almost inclined to say something to him – anything, whatever for a kindred spirit and a conversation at long last – but nothing came to her mind. Some spirit of vacuous thoughts sucked out every possible icebreaker, making her clam up on her side of the table.

"I was talking to Eliot and Calla the other day, those two third-years who're always doing homework by the statue in the common room," Wayne said as Lily pulled on another bulb. _Sploop!_ "They've got Care of Magical Creatures, because third-years, and they said Hagrid's been like, actually strict on them every time one of them gets near the forest. They haven't even gone in even though it's a class about animals, some of which I'm guessing probably live in the forest. Can't tell me nothing's up with that. Also, Hagrid picking a bone with anyone who's not a git seems bit weird. He looks like a cool teacher."

"Isn't he the guy into dragons and whatnot?" said Logan, frowning. "I guess that'd be worth a class."

"Better than poop plants, mate," said Wayne.

Natalie eyed Lily. "Don't you have older brothers?"

Lily took a step back from her bulb, piercing it at the wrong angle and spraying a jet of goop onto her apron. "Ugh. What? Er – yeah. Two."

"They tell you anything 'bout what's up with the forest?" said Natalie. "Like, James Potter's related to you? God, he's handsome."

"Sure he's infatuated with you, too," Logan murmured.

"Well, that beats you. Why don't you ask the poop plant out, Logan?"

Lily was still amazed that Natalie had asked her any non-class related question. "Um. I mean, James, no. My brother Al said something over the summer, yea."

"Aw, don't just leave it on a cliffhanger, that's a crime," demanded Wayne. "What kinda something?"

Something felt strange deep in Lily's gut. She'd just said one off-hand remark, and all of the sudden these three wanted to chat. "I, er, something about a dead centaur."

"What kinda dead?"

"Like…all messed up and cut. Like an attack."

"Really?" Natalie breathed. "Oh, that's cool. It's like a conspiracy."

Logan scoffed and emptied another bulb. "Come on, Nat. It's probably just a giant spider or something and the centaur tangled with the wrong thing. Imagine Marie running into a giant spider or a dragon in the woods. That's why they keep people out."

"You're ruining all of Natalie's dreams," Wayne laughed, grabbing a bulb and pricking its underside to release a stream of goo. "And why is this so satisfying?"

Lily watched Alroy at a table over, boasting as he swished around a bucket of redpitcher goop, "Yeah. Roxanne Weasley got it. I mean, she's a good flier, but Seeker…much more my thing. I was a hundred percent sure I had it. Can't say that enough."

A stupid thought burrowed in Lily's head, but she had just enough of a head of steam now to let it out. "I kind of want to shoot one of these things at Alroy."

"Yes, let's," Natalie approved, grabbing one of their two remaining bulbs. "Hold the stem, Lily. I'm going to aim at his head."

"Aim at his armpit. Smaller target, more skill," Wayne suggested.

Natalie snorted. "Yeah. Oh, unless Logan yells at us. You're gonna yell, huh?"

He shrugged. "Just don't shoot it at me."

"Baby. Here we go."

Natalie pinched the side of the bulb and released a jet of snot-like goop across the greenhouse. Her aiming wasn't on point: The stream missed Alroy by a good meter, shooting over the Gryffindor table and hitting Amir square in the back just as he was talking to Professor Longbottom.

"Hey, Natalie, Lily," Neville said, spotting them at once. "The buckwither pots need to be cleaned out and sprayed down. See you at eight tomorrow night to take care of it."

Amir looked amused for what it was worth, but at the same table, Kaya looked furious. "Nat!" she protested, pulling off her goggles and scowling. "We need that to win!"

Lily blanched. _Agh! What was I thinking? I got us both in trouble, and that's detention now. Oh God. If James or Al find out…and Natalie's going to hate me for –_

"Sorry. Won't happen again," Natalie called out, barely cognizant that she'd gotten in trouble at all. She turned around with a smile and muttered, "Not like it's deadly. Gosh. Get over it. That's why it's safety first."

Natalie laughed and went back to pulling on their last bulb. For just a moment, Lily let herself smile, too. Somehow it felt natural.

* * *

Homework had piled up as the month crawled along, and everything in Lily's head told her to take care of it. Two feet on parchment on how to distinguish between common ghosts and wraiths from Defense Against the Dark Arts wouldn't write itself, not to mention Professor Yaro from Transfiguration had the Ravenclaws learning how to turn a book into a wicker basket.

"I have never heard of any Gilderoy Lockhart where I am from," Professor Yaro said, tossing a book onto his desk and transforming it into a shiny serving spoon, "but he is a terrible writer, and these books are twenty-five years old, so we might as well turn them into something useful. More academic books might require stronger spells, so this is easy practice."

As much as Lily wanted to catch up on her work, however, the forest and the merman still irked her. On the blustery Saturday before Halloween, she tromped out of the crowded Ravenclaw common room, down the staircase ("Leaving again? Just as I was about to punt you out, you scamp") and out onto the castle grounds.

Autumn had a distinctly Gryffindor look to it, as red and gold leaves dotted the grounds and swirled in the wind. Whitecaps crested on the Black Lake, and the few students outside hurried towards their destinations, clutching bags and books and hair. Lily wasn't going anywhere in particular, though. She didn't know if she'd get any answers to the questions that tickled her mind, or even if the person – thing – she wanted to see would show up, but it was worth a shot.

Strolling by the edge of the forest, Lily picked up a small, smooth stone and pitched it into the lake. It splashed down with a soft _pish_ , ripples circling out from all sides, colliding as some rebounded off of the shore to create an entanglement of tiny waves, one's rippling affecting another and another and another.

"I didn't think you'd come back after what happened down here. With the merman."

Lily spun about. A gleaming woman leaned against the tree, suspended a few centimeters off the ground and staring at her. The forest ghost had been watching, after all.

Lily struggled with what to say for a moment. _I come down here to try and meet the ghost, and now I can't say anything?_ Finally she managed, "I was just…curious. That's all."

"Curious about what killed it?" the ghost said. She picked up the hem of her spectral dress and flew forward, right up to where she'd marked off the edge of Hogwarts's magical defensive shell the last time. "I don't know. The magic's in the water, too. I can't pass it. But I know something lives in there, and I guess it killed it."

"Is it the squid?"

The ghost laughed. Her laugh was light, airy, and it floated on the wind. "No, not the squid. That's peaceful. There's something hellish in there. I saw the dead merman. I think it tried to understand whatever lurks in the depths, but it…well, it looked like its brain had cooked. Some sort of fatal madness. Like it stared into insanity and saw insanity staring back."

"Why did you come back?" the ghost swerved topics all of the sudden, pressing her hands under her chin and staring at Lily with deep eyes that had once been real and physical. "I tried to speak with a few others. Four of them ran away from me. One was polite, but she made a clear effort to get away. There was only that one boy that looked like you, and I haven't seen him since. I think I made him uncomfortable."

That made Lily just a tad uncomfortable herself. "Who?"

"Hugo. That what he said his name was. He looks like you. More nervous though. Are you brother and sister?"

Lily felt queasy. Hugo had talked to the ghost? He shouldn't have – he was anxious enough about his own house, his own friends, just like her, but…well…

"Cousins," Lily said. "What did he say?"

The ghost shrugged. "He was lonely. I tried to cheer him up when he said he just wanted a friend. I think it was futile."

Lily felt guilty. _Shoot_. She had neglected Hugo as she'd tried to find her own way in Ravenclaw, but when she imagined him sitting alone in the dungeon, just like her but surrounded not by the twinkling sky-dome of the Ravenclaw common room and the floor-to-ceiling windows but by rocks and green lights and whatever else the Slytherins had, it saddened her.

"Why can't you come past the magical barrier?" Lily asked, trying to shift her thoughts from Hugo. "There's a lot of ghosts in here, and they go wherever they want."

The forest ghost narrowed her eyes, floating back and putting distance between them. "Because of how I died," she whispered, her breath carrying in the breeze. "I don't know if I can trust you with that, Lily Potter."

"I'm not going to say it to anyone. I mean, if not many people know you – "

"No!" the ghost snapped. She bent her head, grimaced, and said, "It's personal. I disappointed people. A lot of people. Even my parents. It's shameful."

Lily looked away. Why did she feel more of a connection to a ghost then she did to her fellow students?

"You didn't answer me," the ghost said. "Nobody else wants to come back to me. Why'd you?"

"I just – is there something in the forest? A monster or something?"

The ghost floated back and forth, eying Lily like a scientist inspecting a sample. She passed through a tree, rubbing her spectral chin with one hand before saying, "Are you lonely, Lily? I think you want someone to talk to." Lily fretted and nodded. "I was lonely at Hogwarts," the ghost went on. "I loved the castle. It felt like home. But I was all by myself, and I ended up here. Bound here. Maybe in a different time we would've been friends. There's something in the forest, yes."

"What is it?"

"I don't know," the ghost said, stroking her cheek. "I've seen it. I don't think it can see me, or if it can, it doesn't notice. I don't think it has eyes at all, actually. I think it sees through smell, given that it tracked a centaur the other day through that. They give the creature a wide berth." The ghost twirled around a tree and spread her arms wide. "Like a man and a half," she said. "Except all earth and bone and wood. A diorama of a man. Antlers on its head. Talons on its hands."

She clasped her hands together and appraised Lily. "I don't treat with beasts. It frightens me. I've been alone here for…for a very long time."

"I can stay," said Lily. It was odd: She'd longed for someone, anyone, to talk to and call a friend for the entire year. Why did it take a ghost on the edge of the forest warning about lurking beasts for her to feel something drawing her in?

"You're probably very busy," the ghost said with a small smile. "I should go. I'll let you go."

"Wait!" Lily yelled. "Do you – what's your name?"

The ghost smiled and lowered her eyes. "Even your cousin didn't ask me that," she said. "Grace. That was what my parents named me…a long time ago. Back when things were different. It's hard to remember that name now. I'll be around here, Lily. But don't come in the wood."


	10. Under the Skin

_**Big ups to luluguineapig and allthingsbright for the awesome consistent reviews! Hope you feel better, lulu (although this chapter might not help, sorry!) Glad you like the poop plants bright, haha, they were fun to write!**_

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Orange and black streamers lined the walls of the Great Hall as Halloween descended on Hogwarts. Tiny bats flitted through the air above the house and staff tables, while a pair of enchanted scarecrows took turns trying to surprise entrants to the hall – a tactic that lost its novelty after the fifth "boo!" Hagrid's pumpkins looked on from the corners of the room and before the staff table, smiling with devilish light. A bright full moon looked on from high in the sky, and the candles around the walls and floating in the air had dimmed to provide just enough light to see while casting a ghostly atmosphere.

That wasn't hurt by Hogwarts's stable of _actual_ ghosts.

Lily hurried by Professor Longbottom in the castle Entrance Hall as he groaned, "Peeves, I'm not joking. This is honestly the worst possible timing. Give it back."

Peeves the Poltergeist waved an arm length of pipe at Neville and stuck out his tongue. "Shan't!"

"Peeves, you've set off a waterfall down the stairs."

"Poor piping. Lardy Longbottom and his poor piping!"

Lily grimaced, evaded a scarecrow that capped off his "boo!" with a swing of his arm that just missed her head, and headed for the Ravenclaw table. Gold-plated tableware glimmered under the candlelight. Most of the other first-year Ravenclaws hadn't arrived yet, and given that Lily certainly hadn't consulted with them about the Halloween feast, she found an isolated spot at the middle of the table, plopped down, and waited for the food. At least she was hungry.

She didn't have long to wait. A hand pulled on her shoulder, and she looked back to see Al looking down at her with a concerned expression.

"Did you just come here alone?" her brother said.

Lily shrugged and looked at the table around her. "Yeah."

"D'you – is anyone coming to sit with you who's just late or something, sis?"

"I dunno. Why?"

"Lils, it's Halloween. You shouldn't have to sit all by yourself on your first Halloween here," said Al, wiping at one eye. He frowned and looked past her towards the Gryffindor table. "Listen, I don't think anyone's going to be too mad if you don't exactly sit at your house's table. You want to come sit over with us? My friends are nice. They'll talk to you."

Lily shuddered. Al meant well, but the offer of charity felt demeaning. It stabbed at her pride, deeply buried though it was. "I'm fine, Al."

"No one's going to mind if you -"

"I'm fine. Really. Alright."

Lily turned around and slouched over the table as her brother sighed and walked away. It was nice of him. She knew she couldn't keep accepting hand-outs like that, however. It was the same thing as it always had been: _Lily, the baby. Why aren't you watching her, James? Albus?_ She already knew about her father's fame. How much worse would things be if everyone here only knew her as James and Al's sister for the next six and a half years?

She didn't have to wait long for her fellow first-year Ravenclaws. Amir and Trent slumped down not far away, lost in talk about the upcoming Quidditch season at Hogwarts. Soon after, a pair of loud voices sounded from down the table.

Natalie and Evie walked into the Great Hall, both of them ignoring the decorations and grandeur of the place as they argued. "You're just not taking it seriously!" Evie said, her voice rising in pitch with each syllable. "We have assignments and homework, and you're just farting around!"

"Well go take it super seriously if you want, then!" Natalie spat at her, storming away as Evie shot her a nasty look before sitting down across from Kaya and Marie.

Natalie didn't stop marching away until she put half a table's length of distance between the two girls, veering past Amir and sitting down right across from Lily. She didn't bother asking if the spot was taken, merely shooting a scowl towards the other girls before staring at her empty plate as if it'd fill up with food immediately on command.

Lily shuffled in her seat for a minute as Natalie stewed. "Is everything alright?" she said at last.

"Fine," Natalie said, the same sort of _fine_ Lily had told her brother. "She's just being a wanker."

Amir and Trent looked up, suddenly interested. "Who's a wanker?" Trent asked.

"Evie," Natalie growled. "She's yelling at me for not doing homework that's not due 'til right before winter break, as if we're going to fall over and die tomorrow and not have, I dunno, an entire month and a half to work on it later. Just going on about the House Cup and things, as if that's not just about how many good boy and good girl points you can dump in a mug." Natalie twirled her empty cup in irritation just as the plates and goblets on the table filled with food. Her elbow ended square in a pasty.

"Isn't that…like, house pride and all that, though? For the Cup?" said Lily, treating the subject with caution.

Natalie scowled at her. "Don't you start, too. Gosh. I thought you'd be the last one to say anything, since you never talk." She huffed, looked up and caught Lily's hurt look, and sighed. "Look, sorry. You do talk sometimes. Quietly. I'm just ticked off."

"The hell with the House Cup," Amir scoffed, digging into potted shrimps on toast. "All about Quidditch. Since we're utterly doomed there, might as well not give a hump."

"And why are we utterly doomed?" Natalie asked.

Amir pointed his fork at Lily. "Your family's related to the Weasleys, right?"

"Yeah," Lily said, hoping that wasn't an indictment.

"Well, try cursing them over winter break or something. Almost half the Gryffindor team's your family," Amir scoffed through a mouthful of shrimp. "Let's see. Your brother's their better Beater. Roxanne Weasley just won the Seeker job, so hey. And Rose Weasley's a Chaser. And our team's balls, according to everyone."

That didn't faze Natalie. "So if your whole family's on their team, you can do like, clandestine spying and stuff? Deliver intelligence and whatnot?" she asked Lily. "Maybe come up with a kidnapping of one of their players. We can tie him or her to a chair and demand they –"

"Do you spend your summers reading Muggle spy thrillers, or something?" Trent snorted.

Lily didn't mind the suggestion. In fact, the conversation flowing around her felt relieving. She was happy to let Amir, Trent, and Natalie control the pace of things, throwing in her two cents now and there, but with every minute more things grew easier. She even chanced glancing over at the Gryffindor table, where Al was deep in conversation with his friends. Her brother looked over at her for a second, spotted the others around, and gave her a little thumbs-up. Lily smiled back.

"How can you even eat oysters?" Natalie asked Lily as they walked out of the Great Hall together. "They're gross. Steak and oyster pie's all salty."

"It's my favorite," Lily said with a shrug. "I like it."

"So was that why you won't eat pumpkin? Whatever. You missed out. The pie was awesome," Natalie mused.

"Pumpkin pie's not really local. That's like an American thing. I think those were Hagrid's pumpkins in those, anyway, so…I'd rather not."

She didn't get time to defend her point as ahead of them, Evie, Marie, and Kaya stood with several other Ravenclaws around a veritable lake that had arisen at the bottom of the grand staircase. "Why's there a waterfall coming down the stairs?" Evie protested.

"Probably your homework crying," Natalie grunted, pushing past her and wading through the river.

Lily stifled a laugh and saw Evie glaring at her. _Screw it_. She hurried after Natalie, the water rushing around her ankles.

* * *

"So she's nice?"

Lily and Albus walked back together from the owlery two days after the feast as the November sun set against a brilliant red sky. For the first time she'd been here, Lily felt like she had a place at Hogwarts. She had someone to talk to at long last, and it was as if she'd dug up a missing puzzle piece that'd kept the work from completion the past two months. It was almost enough to make her forget about whatever lurked in the lake and the forest, the Headmaster's warning, and all the other things that had worried her since she'd come to Hogwarts. For a moment she could lose herself.

"Yeah. Nat's nice," Lily said, smiling up at her brother as they walked down the hall. "I mean, she's a little crazy."

Al chuckled. "That's what friends do. It's good."

"She wasn't really feeling good in class today," Lily added. "She had like a stomachache or something."

"Ah, that happens. A house-elf probably got paid and sneezed with excitement into lunch. Thank Aunt Hermione for that," said Al. They laughed, and he added, "What were you doing in class?"

"It was Defense Against the Dark Arts. 'Tell me the difference between a wraith, a revenant, and a normal, friendly ghost! Ya!'" Lily said, throwing out her arm for effect as she imitated Professor Morrigan.

"Oh yeah? So what's the difference?"

"A wraith can be created and summoned by powerful magic and bound to a person. A revenant is a free spirit that keeps trying to fight and haunt people from beyond the grave. Ghosts are…like the Grey Lady. Or Nearly-Headless Nick."

Al smiled. "Something like that. Sorting Hat made the right call on you. I barely remember that, but I don't do a lot of ghost-fighting." He stopped midway down the corridor and watched as the last arc of the sun sunk into the mountains to the west. "I have to go back to my tower before supper, but…you're doing great sis, alright? Just want to say that."

Lily clasped her hands and looked down. "I guess."

"You guess. Yea, yeah," said her brother, pulling her into a hug. "Go cheer your friend up. Bet she'll like that. Stomachaches stink."

When Lily returned to Ravenclaw Tower before supper, however, Natalie lay sound asleep on her bed. She clutched one arm around her stomach, the other wrapped around a pillow as if it'd escape if she let go. Lily debated waking her up and taking her to the hospital wing, but… _nah. Probably just a bad stomachache._

Natalie still hadn't stirred by the time Lily got into bed. Dreams followed. Evie and Logan chased Lily about the greenhouses with antler-crowned owls, shrieking, "Lily! Your homework will turn into a ghost if you don't do it now!" She tried to escape them and ran smack dab into a redpitcher. The plant opened up one of its oozing bulbs and screamed at her.

Lily shot awake just in time to hear Sara Garner shout, "What's going on? What's happening?"

Over in the next bed, Natalie writhed and screamed.

"Oh," Lily breathed, scrambling out of her bed and pulling open the curtains around Natalie's. The girl squirmed and wriggled in her sheets, her hands clenching her skin wherever they could find a hold. Natalie gritted her teeth so tightly that Lily feared she'd shatter them with any more force.

"What's wrong?" Lily said, grabbing Natalie's shoulders and bending over her bed. "Natalie! Nat, please, just say something."

The girl cried and pressed her face into her pillow. Evie sidled up to Lily, still fixing the shoulders of her nightgown as her face paled. "What's wrong with her?"

"I don't know."

Natalie screamed again, planting her right hand against her neck. "Just go get someone!" Lily pleaded, kneeling down on the bed next to her friend. "Hurry!"

"Who'm I supposed to get?" Evie asked, looking on the verge of tears.

"I don't give a damn!" Lily snarled at her. "Just go! Now!"

Evie and Kaya hightailed it out of the bedroom. Lily felt on the verge of panic herself: Natalie writhed under her, still crying in pain from some unseen injury. When Lily looked closer, though, she saw something: On Natalie's neck, something small and worm-like wriggled up from her shoulders just beneath her skin.

 _Mr. Fawcett…_

"Oh no," Lily breathed. "Nat, just hang on, please."

Tears streamed down Natalie's face. "I want my mum," she sobbed. "Please! I just want my mum."

"I'm so sorry," said Lily. She hesitated, threw caution to the wind, and held Natalie to her chest. Her friend clenched the fabric of her nightgown in her sweaty hands. "Someone's coming to help, okay? I'm not going anywhere. It's gonna be okay. Shh. Everything's gonna be fine."

Kaya and Evie returned a minute later, Professor Vos running in right behind him. He swore and pulled out his wand. "Lily, get the hell back," he ordered her. Vos waved his wand over himself, casting little waves in the air around him, before he aimed at Natalie and said, " _Stupefy!"_

His red blast hit Natalie squarely in the chest, stilling her and cutting off her cries as she drifted into unconsciousness. Vos waved Lily and the others away as he approached, squinting at Natalie as another worm wriggled under the skin of her neck.

"Goddamn nightmare fuel," he breathed. "Any of the rest of you touch her? Any of you?" When the other girls shook their heads and backed into the corners of the room, Vos picked up Natalie, and pointed at Lily. "You're coming too. Hospital wing."

Lily felt in shock as she followed Vos out of the Ravenclaw common room. She watched Natalie's head bobbing back and forth in his arms – what was this thing? The same thing she'd seen plaguing Ed Fawcett during the summer? And how it had gotten here, gotten to Natalie? When she opened her mouth to ask a question, however, Vos caught her off with one glance.

"Not now," he said. "You don't even want to know what I'm thinking, anyway."

The hospital wing was empty, two rows of beds vacant except for sheets of white linen and curtains of soft pale silk. Vos winced and deposited Natalie into one bed before pointing at another with his wand. "Lie down on that, Lily," he said, his voice dark and commanding, "and don't even think about getting out. Got it?"

Lily nodded, too afraid now to question him. She plopped down on the bed as Vos pulled the curtains closed around her, raising his wand and muttering, _"Segregas_." Pale ribbons and waves appeared in the air all around Lily's bed, as if Vos had thrown up an aerial shield all about it. He cast the same spell across the room before walking out. Her heart racing, Lily crouched at the edge of her bed, trying her hardest to quiet her breathing to hear anything going on.

She didn't have to listen too hard for the first bit. "Justman, you drunk!" Vos shouted. "Wake the hell up!"

Someone else stirred – Healer Justman, if Vos was on point. "Merlin, Jurre, you don't have to shout like a banshee. I was just resting my eyes."

"Shut the hell up and listen to me, you infant. There's a girl over on the left side of the ward, third bed. Blonde hair. First year. She's very sick. I stunned her and put a containing spell around the bed, but she'll come to soon enough. Another girl in the bed across the aisle. Red hair. She's awake, her name's Lily. Also first year. Threw up a containing spell around her too, 'cuz she had direct physical contact with the sick girl."

"Dumbledore's sake, Jurre, what'd they get sick with?"

"I dunno. That's why I did that. I protected myself, so I'm clear, but I'm going to go wake up Adeline. She's their Head of House. She needs to know."

"Well, brilliant. What am I supposed to do if you don't even know what's wrong with them?"

"God if I know, bru. You're the doctor here. Figure it out."

Lily backed up against the wall behind her bed, clutched her pillow to her chest, and stifled a cry. God, what was happening? _Mum. Dad. James. Al. Someone, please help._


	11. Isolation

_**Thanks for the kind reviews, lovely guest reviewer and allthingsbright (and glad you like Vos, bright! Fun character to put together, especially taking a different track from most members of the magical community.) Also, glad you're feeling better, lulu – thanks for the review! Also, SARS? D: Yikes. My condolences to your long-ago friend. In this chapter, watch our protagonist get angry for once as we meet another old hand.**_

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Anxious minutes dragged into hours, hours into days and nights. Bed by bed the hospital wing filled. Lily watched from inside the prison of her ward curtains, glimpsing shadows wriggling and twisting on beds to the tune of groans and whimpers of pain. Healer Justman hurried to and fro, shooting calming spells and dealing out potions to reduce pain and other ailments at such a frantic pace that Lily was surprised he didn't fall down and die out of exhaustion.

Across the aisle, the little shadow on the opposite bed barely moved.

"Any pain?" Justman, a balding, short, twig-like man in his early fifties or late forties, asked Lily on the second day of her isolation. He'd thrown up one of Vos's _Segregas_ spells over himself before stepping into the room, and way he kept away from Lily made her think he suspected her of being contagious.

She shook her head and whispered, "No. I don't feel sick. Why am I still here?"

"Anything like seizures? Notable twitching in muscles or ligaments? Odd lumps?"

"No. Can I go? Please, I'm not sick."

Justman shook his head, lodged notes on a clipboard with a droopy quill, and said, "Got a ton more to get to. I'll bring you supper later. Get some sleep before then."

"I already slept a long –" Lily protested, but her words bounced off of a fluttering hospital curtain and the retreating shadow of Healer Justman.

Lily found her only recourses in counting strands in her bedsheets, twisting her fingers between each other in mindless patterns, pulling out hairs on her arms, and letting her thoughts swim out into the red sea of fear. Everyone else here was sick. Natalie had only been the first – so how long until Lily herself got sick? How long until little worms crawled underneath her skin, making her scream and writhe in agony? The groans and cries from other students kept her up at night, waking her every time she fought just hard enough to drift into sleep.

Within forty-eight hours, Lily feared she'd go insane in the ward. Little black dots poked up at the edge of her vision, moving every time she tried to spot what they were. Spiders? Some sort of sickness trying to get her? Just a trick? Her skin itched, and every time she scratched, a new itch cropped up somewhere else. Lily's most exciting moments came when eating the bland protein wafers and crackers that Justman gave her for meals ("Don't have time to explain. Just eat it") and brushing her teeth every night with the disposable toothbrush she got – a new one every night, since she tossed it into a bin once she'd finished with it for Justman to incinerate again and again.

Perhaps she _was_ sick and just didn't realize it. Maybe across the aisle Natalie fought the same feelings of insanity and restlessness, feeling perfectly alright but unable to persuade anyone of her health. That had to be it. Why else would they keep her here?

Human contact dwindled into nothing beyond Healer Justman's check-ups, which could barely be called human. By the fourth day of this, Lily forced herself to play games to pass the time. How many bites could she make one wafer last before it disintegrated into mush in her mouth? How long could she hold her bladder before needing to use her bed pan? How many times could she scratch the top of her hand before it hurt too much to continue? Her eyes ached from staring at the pale curtains, the sun reduced to a mysterious bright glow against the cloth.

Once long ago she'd been sick, _really_ sick. She'd been seven years old then, and tiny black bumps had set her skin ablaze. But then her mother and father had kept her away from everyone, and not in a bland hospital cell, but in her bedroom with all her things to watch over her, her stuffed phoenix Sunny a constant companion on her bed. Now she had nobody and nothing, not even any details about what was going on.

 _I'm in prison because I helped Nat_ , Lily thought, clenching her teeth in bitterness. _I did something nice and they shut me away. They're punishing me for trying to help. They don't even care about me. "Just throw Lily in with the other sick kids. No one will miss her." That or they're making me some sort of guinea pig, and they'll infect me on purpose. That's probably it. "Use the quiet girl as a test subject. She's only a first year. What can she do?"_

Anger bloomed in her over the course of her fifth day in the ward. Anger at the teachers for keeping her here, anger at Professor Vos for making her come to the ward, anger at the other Ravenclaw girls for not helping Natalie as she did, even anger at Nat and the other students who had filled the ward for getting sick in the first place. With no other outlet, Lily unleashed her boiling fury on her arms, tearing up large swaths of skin and digging red lines from her shoulders to her fingers.

As darkness swept over the ward on the night of the fifth day, Lily's curtains rustled again. She turned over in her bed, unwilling to look Justman in the eye by this point, but it wasn't Justman. A young, beautiful, professional-looking woman in a white robe walked in, her black hair tucked behind her healer's hat, her mouth curved up in a hesitant smile.

"Lily Potter?" the woman said. Her voice was high-pitched and had a notable Scottish accent. She waved her wand over her hand, throwing up tiny waves across it before stretching it out in greeting. "Are you feeling alright?"

Lily didn't shake her hand. She retreated as far back into the wall as she could and said, "Who're you?"

The woman pulled her hand back, disappointment evident as her smile faded. "I'm Cho Chang. I'm a healer with St. Mungo's."

"What d'you want?"

"Your Headmaster sent for me and my colleagues. A lot of students are sick, and we think you might be, as well. Alright?"

Lily scowled at her. "I'm not sick."

The healer, Cho, ignored her. "I'm going to ask you a couple questions, alright?" Upon Lily's non-response, Cho looked down at her clipboard and smiled. "You're in Ravenclaw? That was my house."

"I don't care."

Cho Chang's smiled disappeared again. "It says you were touching the first girl who showed symptoms on the night she reached critical? Is that right?"

"What's critical? Wait, what happened to Nat?"

"Lily –"

"What happened? I want to know! Is she okay?"

Cho pursed her lips, her eyes ablaze. "Lily, I need you to cooperate. Just answer as best as you can. Alright?"

Heat flushed Lily's face. She didn't like this woman one bit. She could have had just as informative a conversation with the curtains or the wall. "Fine. I _touched_ her. There."

"And has anything felt odd the past few days? Any strange twinges, especially around your stomach or chest? Any nausea?"

"No."

"Can you, on a scale of one to ten, rate what kind of pain you're feeling right now, if any?"

"Ten. Just leave me alone."

"Lily."

"Fine. One. Zero. I'm fine. Why can't I go?"

Cho Chang didn't answer, but wrote down a few more scribbles on her clipboard. Her eyes flicked over the red marks and scabs on Lily's arms, frowning and writing down a few notes more. Finally, she pulled out her wand and aimed at Lily's stomach. "You're going to feel a little pinch around your belly button, alright? I'm testing something."

Lily didn't get to ask what _a little pinch_ meant before Cho whispered an incantation under her lips.

"Eep!" Lily squeaked, balling up her fists as a small burst of white shot from Cho's wand and hit her square in the stomach. It felt as if she'd jammed a needle just under her skin and was rooting around her intestines. _A little pinch?!_ After a second or two, a small, crimson jet shot up from Lily's collarbone, winding back into Cho's wand.

"That's all," said Cho, pocketing it and picking up her quill and clipboard again. "I don't need anything more. Before I go – is there anything you want to ask?"

Lily had a million questions she wanted to ask, many of which raced around the tip of her tongue as she clung to her pillow, still fighting off the sharp pain in her navel. All she managed was, "I want to see my mum and dad."

Oddly, Cho scrunched up her face, looked at Lily with a pitying expression, and left out into the main ward without another word.

Lily didn't have to wait long for her next visitor. On the morning of her sixth day in the hospital ward, the curtains swept open again. She expected Justman coming with breakfast. She received Headmaster Maribor instead.

The Headmaster looked cross. His eyebrows, usually curved down like a hawk's glare, angled so far down that they threatened to gouge his eyes. His mouth curled into a frown not even the most optimistic of students could have missed, and he held his chin up as if confronting a prisoner. Lily huddled into her pillow, suddenly fearful of what was coming next. Her last meeting hadn't been friendly, after all.

Maribor appraised her for a moment, his eyes staring so hard into hers that she turned her head away towards the near curtain. "One of the healers from St. Mungo's said you were rather uncooperative," he said, his voice stone and steel.

"I'm fine, sir," Lily mumbled. "I feel fine. I'm not sick."

"You certainly look like the picture of perfect health," Maribor mused, eying where Lily had torn a hole in her bedsheet for fun. "The healer told me you wanted your parents. They've been notified about the situation. Every student's family has been."

"Why can't I see them?" Lily whimpered.

If the Headmaster felt any sympathy, he didn't show it. "I don't know why I'm explaining this to an eleven year-old, but I will. I'm fighting a mysterious illness with no set cause and no understanding of how it works. All I, the staff, and the healers we sent for from St. Mungo's know is that more than forty students are out with it here in the ward. At the end of the day, it's my responsibility and mine alone that we contain this thing here and now. I will not allow it to spread. Not another student. Not any of the staff. Certainly not to anyone outside the castle walls. Nothing leaves the castle. And no one enters who intends to leave. I'm fighting an unknown enemy, and my only strategy is to turtle up for a siege."

Lily felt hot. More than forty students? "Is – sir – are my brothers alright?"

"James and Albus are unaffected. If you're asking whether they may visit, the answer's no. No one comes here who isn't a patient or a healer or staff."

"Is Natalie okay?"

Maribor stiffened his upper lip. "Ms. Hightower's under close observation. I won't release any more private details about another student."

"Can I go back to classes, at least? I feel fine. Honest. I'm missing loads of time."

"You're not," Maribor said. "The moment the second patient fell ill I cancelled all school activities and quarantined all students to their common rooms."

"What?"

"The well-being of more than five hundred students ends with me. I will do everything I have to to uphold that. Even if that means isolating everyone who looks like they could get sick, including you."

Lily choked up. "Why? I'm fine! Please, sir. Can I at least talk to my brothers?"

"No," Maribor said, his tone flat and icy. "You had contact with patient zero. If this thing, worm, parasite, whatever it is, passes via physical contact, you'll show symptoms eventually. Until we eliminate that option, you stay here. I will not risk this castle's safety for the sake of one student who lacks the fortitude to stave off boredom."

The Headmaster left with a rush of the curtains. Lily slumped back down against her pillow, abandoning any attempt to hold back her tears. She _was_ just a guinea pig. Stick her in the ward – if she gets sick, hey, that's the ticket! Heck, they probably _wanted_ her to get sick. It'd prove their hypothesis. _Transmits by physical vector…unlucky girl is the sacrifice for the greater good._

Day seven. Day eight. Day nine. Lily felt out of tears, out of energy at all. Black dots buzzed around her peripheral vision. She buried her face in her pillow, hoping maybe that if she suffocated they'd let her out. Futile. Tossing, turning, nothing helped alleviate the invisible weight that crushed her from high above. Lily's chest threatened to compress into a tiny ball.

She turned away as Healer Justman walked in. _More bad news_.

"Got some news for ya'," Justman said. "The Headmaster released the school's quarantine yesterday. Haven't had any new patients in five days. Most classes are back on to restart next week, and the healers from St. Mungo's checked you off, so…if you're up for it, you're free to go."

Lily spun about, her eyes bulging. "I can go?"

"It's Saturday. You can go back to your common room. The grounds are off-limits to everyone, so it's just the castle that's open, but – "

She didn't hear anything more. Lily bolted to her feet, her dirty nightgown clinging to her with built-up sweat and dirt as she threw her sheets to the side of the bed. Justman waved his wand over her and she felt something like a cold shower douse her, but she wasn't worried about such things now. She could _leave_. She was getting out of this horrible place, leaving behind these curtains and wall. Lily tripped over her own bare feet as she stumbled out of the hospital ward, running out the door as fast as her legs could carry her. Her muscles felt like uncoiled springs after so many days of lying in the same bed without walking around, but she forced herself to keep going, to walk out into the hall as she saw a tall, red-haired girl standing outside. Waiting for…

"Lily!"

Her cousin Rose crashed into her with the force of a small bus. Lily's legs failed and she collapsed to the floor, tears running down her face. "Oh my gosh, I'm sorry," Rose cried, pulling her up from the floor. "I'm so sorry. Oh, they said you were sick, and people started saying that maybe whatever was sickening people was killing them, and all these rumors, and no one would tell us about you, and I thought maybe they were testing things on you or something since nobody had any idea what was going on, but then I thought that was ridiculous, and wondered maybe – "

Lily pressed her face into Rose's shoulder, not caring at all that she felt as if she'd broken her hip in that fall. She felt herself shuffled off in hugs from person to person: There was James, telling her she'd been a right idiot for taking a vacation in the hospital ward without inviting them, Al telling her she'd be alright, her cousin Roxanne lost for words and blubbering up something between a laugh and a sob, even Hugo, standing there awkwardly and trying to smile before they embraced, first year to first year, family to family. Lily felt as if she'd woken up from some hellish nightmare to see the sun still shining and the world still spinning.

"I need to change," Lily cried as James held her hand all the way back to the base of Ravenclaw Tower as if he was afraid she'd disappear if he let go. "Really. I need to change."

"You need a shower too, Miss Smelly," said James. He leaned in and added, "We're gonna be in the Great Hall, alright? Come down when you're done. I don't want to let you go again, sis."

She nodded and hurried into the tower staircase. Lily didn't get halfway up before she spotted a boy loitering against a wall, as if he'd been waiting for someone. Logan.

He saw her at the same time. Logan cleared his throat, looked around as if caught without the right thing to say, and muttered, "Hey."

"Hi."

He frowned and scratched his neck. "I, uh, overheard your cousin, Rose, saying you were getting out today."

"Yeah. Well. I mean, I didn't know until a couple minutes ago."

Logan nodded. "I…Marie told us what happened that night you and Natalie went in. I mean, she kind of told everyone. She has a big mouth." Lily stepped back, afraid of what he'd say next. Did the Ravenclaws want to keep her out now, or something? Was he their sentinel, making sure she'd stay away if contagious? "Look," Logan went on after taking a deep breath. "Natalie and I don't really get along all that well, but…that was a good thing you did. I don't think any of the others would've stuck with Nat when she was that sick, or taken charge like that. I know we haven't talked much outside Herbology, but I just wanted to say that."

In the awkward pause that followed, the eagle statuette upstairs in front of the common room shouted, "Hurry up! I figured out what I'm going to ask you. Get up here before I forget it!"

Lily smiled. "Yeah. Um…yeah. Let's go up."


	12. The Dying of the Light

_**Thanks for the reviews, allthingsbright and luluguineapig! This is…another not-so-happy chapter. This is becoming a trend.**_

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 _Lily,_

 _Your Headmaster wrote to us about what happened. Don't worry. We can't go to the castle to come and visit you, but you're in the safest place in the world at Hogwarts. Whatever's happening, it will pass. We're proud of how brave you were on the night everything happened – you're doing so well at school, better than even Mum or I could have hoped. Stay strong, sweetie._

 _-Dad_

 _Also, your grandmother wanted to make sure you're feeling alright. Don't show this to James, or he's going to demand we send some to him, too._

Lily rolled a bag the size of a basketball in her hands, listening to her grandmother's homemade toffee rustling about inside. At least her father had the sense to send it to Al when she'd been in the hospital: James likely would have pilfered half of it by now.

A few feet away, Natalie's bed remained empty. Bits of parchment, two books, and something brown and fluffy stuck out of her closed school trunk. Lily would have just taken it as Natalie shoving things haphazardly into the trunk at first thought, but she'd heard otherwise from Sara, who'd been a lot friendlier to her in the days since she'd escaped the hospital wing.

"The second day after you and Natalie left, he just came in, told us all to leave for a minute, and…I guess he went through her trunk. Nothing in my trunk was moved, so just hers," Sara said, her voice catching in the end. "I don't know why. Trent had already gone to the hospital too by then with a stomachache, and other kids also."

"Who's he?"

"Professor Vos! He just came in and didn't answer any questions."

Lily tossed her grandmother's toffee bag in her trunk and sighed. What had he hoped to find in Natalie's stuff? She'd liked Vos from the get-go, but now with him forcing her into the hospital wing and then this…Lily found herself re-analyzing her opinion of her Astronomy teacher. He'd been so friendly and open in private, but that'd changed as soon as this went down.

Not that Lily had had a chance to say anything to her professor since getting out of the wing. Now she'd have that chance. With classes in the castle back on, Lily didn't look forward to heading up to the Astronomy Tower for once.

She stepped out into the Ravenclaw common room to overhear the end of an argument between a pair of angry fifth-years: "There's no point even trying until break. No Hogsmeade trip, Quidditch cancelled, bloody hell, Care of Magical Creatures was even the best class, and that's cancelled since we can't even walk outside. The best we can do is Gobstones? Really? Absolute bullocks. Yeah, I'm real motivated."

Logan waited for her near the exit to the staircase, his bookbag in hand. "I usually go with Wayne, but he left early with Amir," he said as they departed, leaving a yawning statuette berating them in their wake ("Eagles are diurnal, you dimwits. Do I look like an owl?") "I don't think Amir's taking Trent being in the hospital wing too well since they're good."

"Yeah," Lily murmured. She didn't want to talk about the hospital wing. In fact, she'd be happy if she didn't see the inside of that place ever again over the next six and a half years.

Logan looked around with a tired expression and heavy eyebrows. The Ravenclaw staircase seemed so much darker this Friday night, the flickering shadows from wall-hung torches longer, the new moon outside making glimpses of the grounds seem less inviting than haunting. The barren trees of the Forbidden Forest were an army of skeletons creaking in the wind.

"So no Quidditch and we're shut up in here. What's the point?" said Logan.

"We could go back and sleep," Lily suggested, trying her hand at making him brighten up.

It didn't work. Lily didn't know whether Logan had taken the outbreak particularly hard or whether he was always stuck with his flat, stony, stoic expression. That wasn't helped by his curly black hair and those blue eyes of his, especially set against the black Hogwarts robes. He desperately needed an injection of cheer. Having him talking to her regularly now felt odd, as if Lily had entered the hospital wing from one world and exited it to another, a world where Logan, Wayne, even Sara and her Hogsmeade groupies didn't ignore her out of instinct.

Lily hadn't worked up the courage to suggest Logan try smiling more than once a day.

"Classes are weird with empty seats. It don't feel right," Logan murmured as they walked down a dark, empty corridor towards the Astronomy Tower. Lily nodded, looking down at her feet. It felt stupid worrying about going to class when so many kids still suffered in the hospital wing. Here they were about to take notes while at the same time Natalie might very well be struggling against something horrible burrowing through her body.

"You afraid of getting sick?" said Logan, noticing her pressing her arms into her chest. Lily glanced up at him for a moment before returning her eyes to the floor. She nodded. "Yeah," he said. "Well. If you get sick now, you still might be able to get your old hospital bed back."

Lily stopped and flinched. She looked up at him, expecting Logan to be scowling at her. Instead she something funny – the hint of a smile curling up the corners of his lips. Something strange slithered through her insides. That cold feeling she'd felt so many times during her first two months at Hogwarts fought for ground in her stomach, but at the same time, something warm, something that wanted to laugh and smile, pushed back.

She bit her lip and let out half of a high-pitched giggle. It was a start. An awkward one, but she had to start somewhere.

Astronomy felt like pulling teeth. By the time Lily and Logan reached the tower loft, most of the Ravenclaws had arrived, and Lily had no time to confront her professor one-on-one. Unlike Sara, Evie hadn't warmed up to Lily at all since her ordeal: If anything, she tried to put as much distance between them as possible, as if concerned Lily was contagious and would strike her dead with one touch. While Evie commandeered their telescope to watch Jupiter ("I'll do it. Just write things down when I tell you to,") Lily watched Professor Vos as he strolled along the outside of the outdoor portico, scanning the Forbidden Forest and the lake when he wasn't checking in on the first-years.

"Homework," Vos belted out after a draining couple of hours, "is three feet on Jupiter's moons of Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, including their history, importance, and what each moon could hold for the future. That's all."

"Three feet? Bye-bye weekend," Wayne groaned.

Vos overheard him. "There's more than enough for three feet. Any less and it'd be a godawful essay," he said. "Imagine you're me, and you have to read parchment that says _by Wayne Torres_ at the top. That's already agony. It's almost as bad as reading what the Gryffindors give me."

The other Ravenclaws laughed, even Wayne, but Lily only stared off into the darkness. She'd come up wanting to grill her professor, but now she just wanted to leave.

"Alright, get out of here," Vos said to them all. "Need someone to help me clean up the telescopes. Lily, you're conscripted. The rest of you go pass out."

Lily had a feeling that wasn't a random pick.

After the last of the first-years filed out, Vos flicked his wand at the telescopes, gathered them into one cluster, and shuttled them off into a corner of the loft. "I can already see you're furious with me," he said, relaxing against a pillar of the portico and crossing his arms.

"I'm fine, sir," Lily murmured.

"Do you understand that I had a good reason to put you away in the hospital?"

Lily said nothing, keeping her eyes on her feet. She didn't want to give her professor the satisfaction of an answer. Vos ushered her into his office once more, within the same confines of an enchanted moonlit evening overlooking the plains of what Lily figured was her professor's native Africa. The blue ball in the corner still hummed and leaked its mysterious fog, and the dagger still hung beneath the red and green flag.

"When I saw Natalie sick, I threw up a shield around myself, just like I did around your bed in the ward," he said. "For all I knew, Natalie had touched something, or brought something into the castle, that had gotten her sick. I had to do something to safeguard things, and since you were holding her, I had to take precautions. I went through Natalie's things the very next day and found nothing with any trace of disease. If I could've released you then and there…if it was up to me, you would've been out."

"I wasn't sick, sir," Lily muttered towards her lap.

Vos watched her for a moment, quiet, before laughing and saying, "Come on, Lily, you're a smart girl. I fished out that dead merman you and your brother stumbled upon. And knowing your brother, you've at least heard what happened last term regarding a certain centaur. That's three incidents in half a year. And this latest – forty-five students go sick in four days, and then that's it all of the sudden? No more sick people? Put the pieces together. That's not natural."

Lily looked up at him at last. "Something did all three?"

"I don't have evidence, but you going to call that coincidence?" he scoffed. "Something's trying to worm its way past our defenses and get in the castle, for…whatever reason. I know what I saw in the eyes of that dead merman. It was Imperiused before it died, and given the castle's protections, it had no chance when it ran into the magical shell. Wham, splat. So when I say I wanted to protect you when I sealed you up in the hospital ward, know that I mean it. Hell, I think you're one of my better students. I want you to do well."

"The Healer and the Headmaster didn't care too much about me."

"St. Mungo's chucked Justman at Hogwarts three years ago, and I think they were happy to pawn him off," Vos scoffed. "As for Headmaster Maribor…he's a brilliant administrator, unrivaled in the magical community, and an even better fighter. In the second war against Voldemort, he was part of the Auror's Office and escaped during the Ministry takeover. He fought three Death Eaters near Surrey, all by himself, and killed them all. Didn't stun them. Didn't incapacitate them. Killed them, and inventively, not through Unforgivable Curses, but by legal means. But – and you didn't hear it from me – he's not a very relatable man. The public, and the board especially, love him because he picks the effective solution over the sympathetic one every time."

Vos went quiet for a moment, watching his glowing blue ball, before going on: "All I really want you to know is that you did the right thing. Sticking by Natalie's side that night might've cost you, but that's the kind of everyday courage we need more of in the world. Maybe it's not the kind of brash heroism and bravery the Gryffindors espouse, but…well, your mother and father would have made the same choice."

Lily huddled tighter in her chair. She'd gone from raging inside at her professor to wanting to cry in the middle of his office. "Did – do you know my mum and dad?" she asked, her voice very quiet.

"By reputation only," said Vos. "I wasn't even in Britain during the second war against Voldemort. But..." he paused, looking at Lily with his brow clenched. "Lily, you've twice ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Bad timing, I guess, but be careful."

"What do you mean?" she whispered.

"If something is trying to attack Hogwarts, something…look, Lily. When I went to Germany to work under their officials in the early years of this century, I mentored under a man who took me across the world. We once went to Malta, back in 2005. There're ruins there, ancient ruins the non-magical community knows as the Hypogeum of Hal-Saflieni. They're incredibly old. We investigated a cavern the…the Muggles don't know about, an underbelly of the ruins. We found something there. Something old. Much older than Hogwarts, dating back to an era when magic wasn't so structured and organized, and when the Killing Curse wasn't the worst thing that a wizard could inflict on another. Arcane magic. We worry today about dark wizards like Voldemort and Grindelwald, people little different than you and I except for their willingness to do evil, but all I'm saying is that there's also evil out there that's unspeakable. Something odd's happening around Hogwarts, and we all should be careful. That's all. That, and…I was worried about you and Natalie in the hospital."

They were quiet for a minute. Lily watched the gazelles roaming in Vos's enchanted window, wishing she could hop into the picture and escape this world. It looked so peaceful there with the eternal full moon, the breeze blowing the tall grasses, the distant, flat-topped mountains, the animals serene and oblivious to the horrible things that could happen.

Vos got up all of the sudden, grabbing a quill and a piece of parchment. "Oh, wanted to give you something. The St. Mungo's people are going to clear the hospital wing for visitation on Sunday. Overheard one of them talking. I think if they're willing to do it by Sunday, then tomorrow's good enough."

He signed the parchment with a flourish and handed it to her. "Go visit Natalie. Based on…er…she'll like that. Give that to Justman. If he throws a fit, either come get me and I'll put him in his place, or…I think you've probably learned the fire-making spell in Charms by now, right?"

Lily smiled and nodded. "Then go sleep, you rascal," Vos said. "Wake up in time for lunch, at least."

She got up much earlier than that the next morning, even though she was tired when she saw the sun barely hanging over the horizon outside of Ravenclaw Tower. The other first-year girls slept on, still compensating for the late bedtime after the Astronomy lesson. Lily dug the piece of parchment Vos had given her the night before once she'd changed and moved to hurry out to the hospital ward, but she stopped when she saw Natalie's empty bed. The brown and furry thing hung still out of her trunk.

Stupid idea. She was violating her friend's privacy…but…

Lily looked around, and when seeing nobody watching her, popped open Natalie's trunk. An old, scratched-up, brown and white stuffed rabbit lay inside atop a pile of clothes and books. One eye had fallen out long ago, replaced by a black button someone had stuck on with a spell. The rabbit's left ear looked as if a dog had taken a bite out of the tip.

 _I should just leave it here_. _It's not my business._ As much as Lily wanted to listen to her mind, however, she picked up the rabbit, closed Natalie's trunk, and hurried out of the first-year bedroom.

The halls were empty, and the hospital wing was a solemn affair. The golden light of the sunrise bounced off of shiny tiles across the floor, but it was a sad brilliance of color knowing what awaited behind the many white curtains up in two rows along the walls and windows. Healer Justman reclined in a chair beside a desk at the front of the ward, sound asleep and snoring.

Lily cleared her throat to get his attention. No dice. "Sir?" No dice. Getting nowhere, Lily swallowed hard and slammed her palm against the desk. _Whap!_

Justman woke with a start. "Merlin! Bah – what do you want? Why are you even here?"

He was perhaps the last person Lily felt like being civil to. She tossed Vos's parchment on the desk, folding her arms across her chest as Justman read it. "Man's interfering in things way beyond him. What do you want, girl?"

"I want to see Natalie. Natalie Hightower."

"Well, everyone here's sick. Come back when we open visiting hours. You're disturbing the peace."

Lily stuck out her lip. "I'm getting Professor Vos," she said, turning and taking a step forward before Healer Justman stood up and knocked his chair over.

"Fine, fine. Absolutely devilish. Wait – what's that?" Justman spotted the stuffed rabbit and snatched it out of Lily's hands. "I need to check this over. Might be contaminated."

Lily hadn't accounted for this. Thinking fast, she lied, "Professor Vos said I could bring it to her. I'm going to get him."

"Fine!" Justman barked. "Fine! Just blackmail me, then! Come over here."

Pleased with herself, Lily snatched the rabbit back and followed him over to a familiar stretch of the ward. She shuddered as she eyed an open bed on the right side of the aisle. Someone had replaced the bedsheet she'd ripped a hole in.

"She's asleep," Healer Justman said, pulling open the curtains before a bed with a small figure resting on it. "You can come back later. Or wait, if that's your thing."

"I'll wait. I'll be quiet," Lily sniffed, pushing past him and dragging a chair up to Natalie's bed.

Her friend looked different. Her nightgown was ratty and dirty, and her bright blonde hair was stained with sweat and curled up in bunches and knots. Dark circles ran under Natalie's eyes. Most frightening of all, long purple blotches lined her neck and the top of her shoulders. Lily almost recoiled in horror: _That's where the…worm thing…crawled_. It'd left its mark behind. She laid Natalie's rabbit against her feet, sat back in her chair, and waited.

An hour passed. Then another. Someone woke up in a bed nearby, grunting and groaning to greet the morning. Finally, when Lily's eyelids threatened to drop with exhaustion, Natalie stirred.

She breathed in and balled a fist, rubbing her eyes but keeping them closed. After a minute Natalie opened her eyes. She looked to her left at the curtains, frowning, and then glanced up to see Lily. She started, jumping back into her pillow and grabbing her neck with one hand to cover up the purple welts.

"Hi. It's alright," whispered Lily, putting a hand on the bed and forcing a smile. _Gosh, I didn't even think._ If she'd been in the same position, she would've felt something far beyond self-consciousness over scarring like that. "I…Professor Vos let me in. Are you okay?"

Natalie didn't say anything. Her lip trembled, and she pulled her nightgown up as high as it would go. Something had transformed inside her during her stay: No longer was she the spunky, boundary-pushing girl Lily had known over her first two months at Hogwarts. Natalie was still here, but the light inside her had died. Her green eyes had lost their sparkle. She wasn't anymore the girl willing to trade barbs with Logan and Wayne and shoot plant gunk at Alroy McLaggen, but just a scared kid huddling on a hospital bed, terrified that her classmate would judge her for what had happened.

"I, er, brought you something," Lily said. She hesitated: She couldn't very well tell Natalie that she'd dug in her trunk. Time to lie again. "You left something on your bed, and I saw it before I came here, on accident, and I thought…I mean I figured you might want it."

She bit her tongue and set the rabbit down on the bed. For a moment Lily thought Natalie would yell at her, accuse her of violating her privacy and barging in where she wasn't welcome. Natalie picked up the stuffed animal, her bottom lip trembling as she held it closed to her chest. Then, without warning, she burst into tears. Lily didn't know what to do. Natalie wasn't just crying – she was sobbing as if someone had killed her family, weeping into her rabbit while clutching it to her chest with enough force to choke the life out of the stuffed animal. "Nat, it's alright," Lily said, fighting back tears of her own now. "It's alright."

"No one came," Natalie cried at last. "My mum didn't come. My dad. No one came for me."

Lily wanted to tell her that no one was allowed in, that the castle was shut down, that they were stuck in here until otherwise notified, but her voice didn't work. Maybe it was because she recognized this all too well: Here was Natalie, at her lowest and feeling as if everyone had left her behind.

Anger welled up in her gut. If Vos was right and there _was_ something on the offensive against Hogwarts, it had done a bang-up job already turning this place upside-down.

 _You're supposed to smile at Hogwarts, not cry_. That's what Al had said. There wasn't much smiling going on these days. Lily had looked forward her whole life to coming to this great castle of unity and friendship and exploration and love, and she'd found a place brimming with fear and paranoia, sinking deeper into the mire every day.

The light wasn't just dying out in Natalie's eyes.


	13. Whispers of Winter

_**Big thanks to Lemon (don't cry! :D Although that was kind of my intention, so don't listen to me) and luluguineapig for the great reviews! Somewhat of a transitionary chapter here. This one took considerable re-working (snapped my streak of daily updates, too, darn it. I had seven in a row), and I'm not sure I'm all that happy with it in the end, but…hey. An opportunity for character development.**_

* * *

"So, what? Why are there only two hoops?"

"That's the thing. There's no broomsticks. It's just five guys on the court on either side, not seven, 'cuz there's no Snitch or Bludgers. Just one ball, five guys a side. No designated Keeper, either, so everyone can move around everywhere."

"But it's only two points every time you score?"

"Well, three points if you're past this line – "

"That doesn't make any sense. Why not just get a bunch of giants to bully past everyone and put the ball in the hoop every time? That's the most boring game ever."

"I mean, you don't exactly have giants. Second, you can't just run people over. That's against the rules."

"How's that even work?"

"Mate, I can't stun you off of your broom in Quidditch. It's a rule. Rules are rules whether for Quidditch or basketball."

Lily curled up on a chair in the Ravenclaw common room, ignoring Wayne's attempt to teach the Muggle game of basketball to Logan. Early December snow drifted past the window, flurries twirling like iced fairies in the soft breeze. White and blue stars twinkled in the midnight blue ceiling above. Orange and red fires crackled in the common room's two fireplaces, and the hum of muted chatter drifted up from a dozen clusters of Ravenclaws around the room. After the lengthy delay from the outbreak, classes that had resumed had ridden students harder to catch up. Lily imagined the Gryffindors and Slytherins had blown off the pressures of extra homework, but here, studying took priority. For every Wayne and Logan chatting about nothing in particular, there were five groups flipping pages of textbooks and scribbling on parchment.

Wayne glanced at her as she read in her armchair. "I don't even know how that book's interesting," he said. "I mean, I think, hey, no Herbology since we can't go outside, I'll blow the afternoon off until Charms because I need a break from studying. I guess I'm in the minority."

"I actually like reading. Wow, crazy," Lily murmured, keeping her eyes on her book.

Logan glanced up from Wayne's scribbly rendition of a basketball court. "Is that that book the owl sent you at breakfast?"

"Yeah. It's from my aunt."

"She must be really mad at you," Wayne noted.

Lily rolled her eyes. In truth, she'd wanted more information about the castle ever since her after-class meeting with Professor Vos a week after getting out of the hospital ward. _Something's trying to worm its way past our defenses and get in the castle…_ well, damn it, she'd at least try and figure out what that meant. She'd thought about asking Madame Templeton at the library about finding more about what kind of _defenses_ Vos had meant. Lily knew about Hogwarts's defensive magical shell in a general form, but her curiosity overcame her. In the end, however, rather than turning to Hogwarts's librarian for aid, she'd sent word to someone she considered a better source of information.

 _Oh, I'm so happy you asked!_ her aunt Hermione had written back, accompanied by a thick book that an enraged, weary barn owl had dropped with an unceremonious _thud_ on the Ravenclaw table that morning. _There's so much incredible to learn about Hogwarts – even I don't know everything there is to know about the castle! For instance, there're rumors about ancient, strange ruins and things deep underground, below the foundation, somewhere apart from the Chamber of Secrets your dad found our second year, but that's all shrouded still. I'm sending you my favorite book; it'll tell you most things about the castle. Your father never got around to reading it, but I'm so proud you want to! Neither Rose nor Hugo ever were interested…_

Aunt Hermione's note went on like that for two whole feet of parchment. _Hogwarts: A History_ proved a much tougher read. It wasn't exactly exciting, and trying to find general details about any one facet of Hogwarts led to a million footnotes and allusions.

Still, the book had its moments.

"So, I can go into your bedroom," Lily read aloud, "but you can't go into ours."

Wayne snorted. "There goes my plan to kidnap you in the middle of the night. Shame."

"How was that plan supposed to go?"

"He'd probably drop you in here and then go back to sleep," Logan murmured.

"Something like that. I'd tie you up and make you answer the doorknob's riddles all night."

Lily laughed as Nathan the prefect stepped into the room, tossing his bookbag over his shoulder and his hair away from his forehead. Across the room, Marie looked up from where she was studying with Kaya and Evie, staring rapturously at him while letting out a little giggle.

Logan frowned as Nathan strolled past everyone in the room. "That guy's like a walking stereotype," he muttered. "Not like the 'I'm-so-important' prefects on power trips, but…come on, prefect, Quidditch captain, Marie's giggling at him, it's slimy."

"That's what you can do. That's what I'd make you do when I kidnapped you," Wayne told Lily, his face lighting up. "I bet Nathan's the kind of guy who keeps a journal. So you could go steal it, and we could read the whole thing. 'Today, I caught a whiff of my power. I remembered when I was mortal and the Hufflepuffs made fun of me. I will become a mighty, magical storm that will wreak righteous havoc on their people! Just like a mighty, magical storm! Next week, I will be devoured by a dragon and make the world a better place. Tremble before my greatness, termites!'"

Lily and Logan both snorted with laughter. As they made their way to Charms later, Lily allowed herself to smile. They were trapped inside, Quidditch was off, and a black shadow had fallen over Hogwarts, but if something was attacking the castle, it still hadn't figured out how to touch the little moments. If Lily'd still been alone, she shivered at the thought of how the last few weeks would have gone. But now people were talking to her (Evie wasn't outside of Astronomy, and Kaya not at all, but that was no loss) and Wayne and Logan were happy to spend their time with her and make her laugh. Trent and several others had gotten out of the hospital wing, even. While Natalie was still trapped in that horrible place, Lily felt an odd sensation of hope fighting back against the overwhelming dread sweeping the castle.

The whispers still dominated chatter in the hallways, however. "What if I get sick with a cold or something? I can't go in there, or…or…"

"I heard they're keeping the others still in there because they got even sicker. Someone's going to die. I know it. I bet some of the sick are just vegetables in there and will never get better."

"They're going to cancel the school year right before winter break comes around. Maybe even tear down Hogwarts."

"I heard we're all going to have to spend the winter at St. Mungo's to disinfect us or something. I mean, if it's too much for magic to cure, they're going to have to…what do the Muggles use for healing? Needles? They're going to stick those all over us and cut us up. I'm scared."

"Do you think it's infecting the whole world now? I bet it is. That's why they won't let us outside. They're just covering it up."

Rumors were rumors, but they spread about the school at the speed of light. The ones fearing a global pandemic of some super-disease were particularly pervasive, kept alive by the Headmaster's refusal to let the students out of the castle. _I suppose it makes sense, not letting us out,_ Lily thought, _but what happened to that whole 'inciting a panic' excuse?_

Lily dropped her bookbag outside of the Charms class as the Ravenclaws and first-year Hufflepuffs filed in for their afternoon class. Books scattered about everywhere. "Why'd you bring all that?" Wayne scoffed. "Really, how is _Hogwarts: A History_ going to help for Charms?"

"We'll save your seat," Logan said, hurrying inside to join the others.

Wayne had a point. Lily grumbled and shoved supplies and books back into her bag, stepping around spilled ink as she picked up her quill. Just as she was about to head in, however, she spotted a face peeking around the nearest hall intersection.

"Natalie!"

Lily abandoned her bookbag and rushed forward. Her friend hesitated and stepped back. Careful not to repeat Rose's crash, Lily let up a few steps before running over Natalie, skipping into a stop and pulling her friend into a hug. Her friend's hug was weak in return, and when Lily stepped back to get a look at Natalie, she looked _awful_. Part of it was Lily's having a few inches' advantage in height, but Natalie's face looked even paler than when she'd remembered from visiting her in the hospital wing. Dirty brown dots had poked up around her eyes and nose. Worst of all, while she'd hidden most of the purple blemishes with a high-necked shirt under a generic pair of school robes Lily imagined Healer Justman had given her, a long, lumpy, blue-violet blob still scarred the right side of her throat, reaching all the way up to her jaw line before receding. It looked worse than before, more pronounced, a lump of scar tissue now cemented as a permanent and tragic monument on Natalie's face. Lily didn't want to imagine what other damage lurked beneath her layered clothes.

"Did they just let you out? We can skip class if you want," said Lily, trying not to stare at the blemish. "It's just Charms."

Natalie nodded and mumbled, "Yeah. But I'm already way behind. I can't miss it."

"It's nothing exciting."

"I can't."

She stopped Lily before they walked in, however, her face full of apprehension. "Wait. Wait. People – " she paused, closed her eyes, and sucked in a deep breath, "People are gonna stare."

"Who cares?" said Lily. She smiled, grabbed Natalie's hand, and stepped with her into the classroom.

A few of the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs scooted away from Natalie, but most of the class, especially Professor Teague, welcomed her back with a smile and applause. By the time Lily, with Logan and Wayne in tow, led Natalie down to the Great Hall for supper, she'd managed to crack a hint of a smile, a weak ray of sunlight cracking through the storm clouds. The plates that usually filled with food lay empty on the four house tables, however, and as students trickled in, Lily noted a number of them looking around, confused. _Supper? Yes? No?_

They got their answer when Headmaster Maribor stepped up in front of the staff table.

"I've got an announcement," he boomed, as if it wasn't obvious. "It's been some time since recent events began, and the winter break's two weeks away. During the break, all teachers and staff will conduct a sweep of the castle, a massive clean-up to ensure that no one else here will fall ill or otherwise. If everything's clear by the time the new term begins, I'll re-open the grounds. And Quidditch will be back on."

Fists thundered and voices cheered. "But," Maribor cut them off, "it won't be a light undertaking. Because of that, none of you will be staying at Hogwarts over the holidays. We've sent word to all your families, and if any of you don't have a place to stay over the winter, we'll arrange accommodations. The Hogwarts Express will leave on the last evening of the term. That's all."

Lil shrugged. Better than she'd anticipated from the Headmaster: She'd planned to go home anyway and get away from the castle's troubles for a few weeks, and her family always put on a good time for the holidays regardless. It didn't affect her.

Next to her, Natalie paled.

"What's wrong?" Lily whispered to her.

She shook her head. "I was going to stay. It's nothing."

"Stay? Why?"

"It's nothing."

It didn't _seem_ like nothing to Lily. The end of the term rushed by as the snow deepened outside of the castle and the professors pressed harder. Work mounted, and by the time Lily stepped aboard the Hogwarts Express to go home, she was grateful for a break. That, the chance to see her parents again after the nightmares of her first Hogwarts term, the opportunity to forget about dead mermen and sickness and the shadow of an attacker probing for a way into the school, all of it was a relief.

Even having people to share a cabin with aboard the train was a welcome change.

"This is what we were doing most recently," Logan was in the midst of saying to Natalie, propping up a copy of _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1_ in the seat next to her. "Unlocking Charm. To, er, unlock locks and things."

"Good lord, I had no idea," Wayne chimed in.

Logan ignored him. "See?" he said, trying to get Natalie's attention. " _Alohomora._ I'm still working on it, but it's just pointing your wand at the lock and saying it."

" _Alohomora_ ," Natalie repeated, her voice airy and drifting as she stared out a frosted window at the frozen landscape beyond. Her eyes drooped, her lips dipped into a frown, and out of the four of them, she was the only one clearly unhappy about heading back home. Lily couldn't figure it out: She'd cried for her mother and lamented her not visiting in the ward. Getting away from the castle was a chance to re-energize after her long stay in the hospital ward and the flurry of classwork over the past two weeks.

The train ride back to King's Cross was a good chance to catch up on other books besides those useful for Charms class, however – even if bland Bathilda Bagshot wrote them.

 _Hogwarts's innermost protections include magical seals on all doors and entranceways into the castle, along with uniquely-designed Repelling Charms protecting central open-air areas – including Hogwarts's inner courtyards and the Astronomy Tower. This, along with the castle's anti-Apparition protections, defend Hogwarts's structure from the most basic physical incursions. While blunt force becomes a factor if a dark wizard, witch, being, or creature attempted to bash their way in, a cocktail of charms and spells form an inner shield around the castle superstructure designed to distinguish harmless and friendly visitors – such as students, staff, and owls, among others – from those with ill intent._

"Is that really good reading? Come on," Wayne said next to Lily, looking at _Hogwarts: A History_ with condescension.

Lily shut it and dropped it onto her lap. "Not really. Just bored."

"Well, I'm terribly sorry we're so boring," snorted Wayne. "Maybe you can go visit Bathilda Bagshot over the holidays if you want someone more exciting."

"She's probably withered away from old age or something by now," Lily chuckled. "She's probably Binns's lover."

Wayne made a face. "God, can you imagine? Bonding over tales of Ulric the Oddball. 'Bathilda. There is nothing closer to the heart than being an old coot and wearing a jellyfish on your head.'"

"Stop, I'm going to vomit," Lily giggled and pushed him away. "Fine, I'm going to visit Bathilda. My deepest secret. What're you doing for the holidays?"

He shrugged. "Guess Dad'll be happy to see me. He's a Muggle and all, my two older brothers too, they don't get this stuff. I think they both think I'm bizarre, but that's normal, so hey."

"I'd get along great with them, because you're really bizarre," Lily said. "Is your mum a witch?"

"Nah," he said, his smile sinking. "Don't remember her anyway. Died a long time ago."

Lily turned away, feeling stupid. _Why do I always ask one question too many?_ "Sorry."

"It's nothin'," said Wayne. "I'm good watching Logan trying and failing to teach anything."

"It's a tough spell, come on."

"Mate, it's pretty much the easiest spell we've learned all year. Nat should probably be teaching _you_."

Returning to King's Cross felt odd. The feeling subsided in a flash as Lily glanced out the window and spotted a familiar face, however.

"Mum!" Lily cried, bolting to the door of the cabin before turning around. "I'll – er, I'll be back in a sec, guys."

"Oh, that's right, just run away from us," Wayne laughed.

Lily barely heard him. She rushed to the door and catapulted off the train as soon as it came to a halt at the station. Dodging past a pair of frumpy-looking wizards and rushing around a short, tired-looking, blonde-haired witch, Lily spotted her mother and sprinted straight at her.

"Lily!" her mother shouted, catching her daughter in her arms. "Gosh, you look wonderful! But I knew you'd do great."

"Where's Dad?"

"Working, but he'll be home by the time we get back," her mother said. She ran a hand through Lily's hair, beaming from ear to ear, and added, "Look, James is going to take a half hour before he decides to get off the train knowing him. If there're friends or whoever you want to say good-bye to – "

Lily fretted and spun around. "Oh yeah. Whoops. Be back."

She darted through the crowd again, hurrying to get back to the train before her friends dispersed through the crowd. She didn't have to go far: The tired, blonde witch who Lily'd juked on her way off the train clung to Natalie with both hands, murmuring something in the girl's ear. Tears ran down Natalie's face, and Lily couldn't force herself to butt in. After everything that had happened…it was nice to see.

She looked up at the woman she figured was Natalie's mother. The witch looked as if she'd seen better days, her hair thin and graying in parts, her eyes wrinkled and worn. A long, ugly bruise ran down from just below her eye to her jawline, and a tiny scar lined the corner of her mouth.

Lily put the pieces together and swallowed hard, her warm feeling going cold. Maybe her friend had had a good reason for not wanting to come back for the holidays.


	14. Fears and Family

_**Thanks for the reviews, allthingsbright, luluguineapig, and Lemon! (really happy you're relating with Lily, btw, bright – that's a huge compliment! When your characters are relatable, it feels rewarding) More old faces return. I originally had some grand plan for this chapter, and I ended up word-vomiting like crazy. A look into the contrast between Lily surrounded by new faces and unfamiliar places at school and Lily in the midst of the comforts of family back home.**_

* * *

The ground was white, the sky gray, and the windows black.

Snow piled up around the door to the Fawcett home. Yellow, burnt-down candles peered through the glazed windows as shadows, eyes squinting at the winter world, huddling against the black void of the frightened, empty old home behind them. The fields of Ottery St. Catchpole hushed beneath a December blanket, but inside, Lily imagined a hundred belongings, pictures, books, and so much more, silent and waiting for an owner who had never made it home.

"I wondered what happened to him," Lily whispered, standing alongside Al in the snow. Flakes nested in her hair.

Her brother furrowed his brow and made a wry expression. "I heard it from James after Dad told him. He said…I mean, James didn't want me to tell you, but he said Mr. Fawcett was doing good for a while. Getting better and all that. Then just out of the blue a month ago he got out of whatever ward he was in and threw himself down a flight of stairs at St. Mungo's. Right into a coma, and that's the latest. It's just…"

Al let his words drop off into a chilly gust of wind. Lily blanched. _Months of getting better, and then bang_. _All the hope ends up good for nothing. Nothing fixed. Everything still broken._

"They – " Lily stuttered, She looked down and kicked a pile of snow up between her feet. "Nobody at St. Mungo's can do anything about it?"

Al shrugged. "Way James said it, the healers think it's some sort of strong and strange magic. Like they're getting stumped every time they think they've beaten it, and it just comes back. He said Dad suggested it was like a worm or something, and that it might've left something behind and hidden in Mr. – "

Her brother stopped, noticing Lily's face at last and putting together perhaps _why_ James didn't want him to pass that information on. "Mr. Fawcett's pretty old. At that age, trauma, it's gotta get to you. We don't even know anything that happened, even Dad's just guessing. It's just out there. It's like complications when someone gets sick. A week later they're back and feeling better."

Lily nodded, glum. It was nice of him to say that, but it didn't cheer her up. _Doing good for a while_ …for all she knew, Natalie would up and throw herself down the Grand Staircase sometime in February, and she couldn't say a word. The St. Mungo's people had cleared everyone in the hospital wing. What good what fear-mongering, or _inciting a panic_ , if the Headmaster had any say in it, do for her friend?

"This place is depressing. Come on," said Al. "Lils, I know what you're thinking. Your little friend's going to be fine. That girl I mentioned I'm friends with in Hufflepuff, Caroline…she got sick, too. She's doing a whole lot better, and by the time we all went back, she was great. I know it's tough when you can't do anything. When you were in the hospital wing, I didn't even sleep much at all. Justman wouldn't let us even talk to you, let alone visit you, and it was just shite. Nothing I could do to help."

He threw an arm around Lily's shoulders, and she smiled. She still worried about her friend, but Al made things better. He didn't have James's charisma, and maybe he wasn't so popular and sporty like their older brother, but he had a knack for making someone feel better.

"Can we just walk for a while?" Lily piped up.

The abandoned Fawcett house was the only blight on an otherwise beautiful winter day. The gray sky brightened and glowed as the clouds thinned. Snow drifted down in a light but steady cadence, twirling around Lily and Al with little dances to each breath of wind. The air chilled, but Lily felt toasty enough under her thick, yellow winter coat that she imagined spending the whole day out here on the hills, alone with the elements and at peace.

Her thoughts drifted with the conversation. "Back a while ago…James said you didn't try out for Quidditch."

Al shrugged, staring out at the snow-covered roofs of the little Muggle town in the distance. The buildings looked like gingerbread houses, with little ants tromping between them down licorice lanes. "Yeah. I didn't."

"Why? Did you oversleep or something?"

"No, I just didn't want to. Look, I know you and James are big into it, so're Mum and Dad, but I'm just not. That's it. Not anything crazy."

"Doesn't James get on your case about it?"

He sighed. "Yeah. But…if I tried out and somehow made the team, I would've had James on my case for anything I did wrong while playing, and I'd be doing something I didn't want to just to make everyone else happy. This kind of way: Imagine you got to choose your house, no Sorting Hat. You're happy in Ravenclaw, right? I saw you sitting with those other three on the train."

"Yeah. I mean, I guess so. People are being nicer."

"Good enough. Imagine you picked Gryffindor in this world when you can choose. You go into the house because we all did, but everyone hates you, or ignores you for all seven years. You're miserable, but hey, you did what you thought people wanted from you. What's the point of that? I'd rather get my own happy ending, even if it's not all that happy, than someone else's anything ending."

Lily stuffed her hands in her pockets and nodded, conceding the point. _The wisdom hour with Albus Potter_ _will return shortly_. Sometimes, when she was wide awake late at night, she imagined Al wasn't Al at all, but someone old, dead, and smart reincarnated into his body. Her father had told her about Albus Dumbledore, the legendary Headmaster of Hogwarts and Al's namesake. _Good choice, Dad._

"Why're we even talking about Quidditch, anyway?" said Al. "It's gonna be the world's shortest season next term."

Lily kicked a clump of snow and shrugged. "It's only back on if something doesn't happen again. That's what the Headmaster said."

"They're not going to find anything bad. We've had enough for one year," Al said, trying his best to dig up a joke. His smile faded a second later, however, and his eyebrows narrowed in thought. "I mean, I hope so."

"What d'you mean, hope so?" asked Lily, her voice catching.

"Nothing. Look, when Dad gets worried, then I'll believe something's going on. Until then, nothing."

Al went quiet for a minute as they walked the long way home, curving through a grove of trees. Icicles dangled from branches. A thin crow cawed at them from the topmost twigs, rustling its wings to shed off a fresh coat of snow. It was so loud, so unexpected in the stillness and silence of the winter landscape that Lily jumped.

Something tripped Al's mind as they walked through the grove: "It's just, you know the big fight at school twenty years ago that Mum and Dad fought in, killing Voldemort and whatever?"

"I think so, Al, it's kind of why everyone knows Dad."

"How many people died in that, though? I mean, how many of those bodies were even picked up? How many just stayed hidden and rotted in the lake or on the grounds or in the forest?"

He looked perturbed, the gears in his head visible in the way his lips creased and tightened. "I know Professor Morrigan teaches you about ghosts and wraiths and whatnot in first-year Defense Against the Dark Arts. She told us about some dark creatures last year, grindylows and whatnot, but also some other things. Inferi. Zombies. Then things that just…" he paused, biting his tongue as he searched for the right word. "My first year, I always thought about how Nick and the other ghosts have the will to keep going after they died. Morrigan taught us about some other things, not like ghosts, but people and wizards who die but don't get the message. Just can't admit defeat and keep fighting. Those Death Eater guys who fought Dad back when, well…a centaur dies in the forest, and no one sees what kills it. Just makes you wonder."

This was the downside of talking with Al, thought Lily. For all his good advice and warm encouragement, he really needed to learn when to stop his trains of thought. That his ruminating _did_ make Lily wonder wasn't something she thought of as a good thing. She still hadn't told him about the dead merman, and as far as she knew, James had held his tongue as well. Not to mention there was the ghost on the edge of the forest, Grace. When even a ghost, far beyond the fears of life and death, was afraid of something in the trees…

It was a dark enough line of thought to keep Lily musing all the way up to Christmas.

The gathering of the Potters and Weasleys on December 25th was enough to steer her feelings in the right direction. By the time her family made their way across Ottery St. Catchpole to her grandparents' old, cozy home, the Burrow, half of her extended family already had arrived. Christmas proved a spirited occasion: From James and their cousin Fred setting off firecrackers with Uncle George outside, sending plumes of red and green sparks flying in the sky, to her cousin Victoire in a corner snogging her father's godson, Teddy Lupin, the two seemingly oblivious other people had shown up at all, to Roxanne and Rose's furious discussion of Quidditch strategies ("James will probably aim at you with a Bludger to be funny when we play Ravenclaw, since their Chasers are inept and will never score. I won't say anything if you stun him"), to her grandfather's attempts to explain to Al the workings of an electric plug ("It's really simple, see. The, er, elec-city goes in this side through the prongs and comes out the other side. It's like magic. Muggle magic"), all of it felt…well, _magical_ to Lily after her rough first term at Hogwarts.

Even her grandmother's annual sweater made her smile.

"The blue matches your hair and eyes, dear," she said, holding it up for Lily to see. "And it's spirited! Our first Ravenclaw! A little variety for once! Gosh, you're getting big, Lily. I'll have to knit you another by July at this rate."

James snatched it from her and chased Lily with the sweater. "Get over here and put it on!" he shouted, grinning as Lily fled for higher ground.

"Trap her in the top bedroom. We'll get her there," Teddy said, joining in the pursuit as Lily shrieked in delight and made a beeline up the stairs. "We're putting the sweater on you, Lily. This is happening."

Their uncle Ron snorted as he watched them run by, nursing a glass of firewhisky as he said, "Could be worse. It's not maroon."

There were so many people in the house that Christmas dinner stretched through every level and seemingly every room of the Burrow. Lily even stumbled into a heated conversation between her aunt Hermione and her uncle Percy, both arguing through mouthfuls of custard tart.

"Absolutely not," Hermione was in the midst of saying, her expression cross. "That woman's vile. Half the rumors we hear about Alanis Fell in our department, cheating people out of money, extortion claims, she was loosely connected with several disappearances just last year – "

"Claims," Percy contested. "Hermione, I can't just _shut someone out of the Floo Network_ because your department doesn't like her. Kingsley likes her, and if the Minister of Magic likes someone, that's good enough for me. And most of the wizarding world, as well, not to mention Gringotts loves her, so I'd be looking for a new job pretty quickly if I went with your suggestion. This is all hypothetical, because it's unlawful."

"At least let us bug it."

"Do what?"

"Bug – keep an eye on it. I don't care how popular she is. I think she's using that to get away with a lot of crimes. We can see where she's going – "

Lily had no idea who her aunt was talking about, but Hermione hushed up the moment she saw prying eyes looking in. _More secrets_.

By the time the treacle tart and trifle ran low and Lily's favorite rhubarb pie sloshed around in her stomach like a lead weight, more than half the family had passed out from food- and laughter-related exhaustion. Lily and Hugo lay on opposite sides of a couch in the den, watching the crackling flames in the fireplace burning down.

"Is everything okay?" Lily asked her cousin, her voice quiet and small in the late hour. "I didn't even get a chance to talk to you today. We never see each other in school, except at Potions."

Hugo shrugged. He toyed with his green knitted sweater their grandmother had gotten him, frowning. "I guess."

"What's that?"

He only shrugged again. "Are the other Slytherins fun?"

Another shrug. Lily didn't have to keep asking questions to get the point. She'd grown content with being in her house, but Hugo apparently still had work to do in that regard. "Maybe just speak up more. You're Hugo! You were the wrecking ball around here for every Christmas. People like that." Lily realized how stupid her advice sounded as soon as it left her lips. _Hurr. Just be yourself, cuz._ That hadn't worked too well with her. She knew better. "Look, I know it's tough figuring all this new stuff out. I mean, the other girls didn't even want to sit near me for a month and a half. Is there anyone at all who you can talk to in your house?"

"One, I guess."

"Alright, that's a start. Who's he? Or she?"

Hugo frowned and glanced towards the armchair to their left, where Rose snored loudly. "Rose doesn't like him much. They don't get along. His name's Scorpius. Malfoy. He's a third year. I don't think a lot of other people like him, really."

Lily fought back a grimace. _That depressed-looking guy Finley pointed out back during the Welcome Feast?_ That was mean. She must've looked just as depressed. "Forget what Rose thinks. Is he a good guy?"

"Er, I guess. We get along and talk."

"Well, that's fine, then!" said Lily. She fought back the urge to fall asleep and forced herself into sitting upright. "If you like talking to him, forget what Rose and everyone else tells you to do. Just do what make you happy."

"You sound like your brother."

She frowned at him. "I mean, he kind of said the same thing to me a couple days ago. So I'm quoting him." Hugo cracked a smile and held back a laugh. "See!" Lily said, lying back down on the couch and fighting off the weight of her eyelids. "We're gonna make it."

The holidays passed by much too quickly after that. Having her family around so much put Lily at ease – no trying to impress people, no attempting to fit in, no analyzing every word she planned to say in the fears that something would tick off someone. It was liberating, and by the time the last day before the end of the break rolled around, Lily felt downbeat about returning to Hogwarts.

Fresh snow glistened in the golden light of the early morning as she forced herself out of the warm comfort of her bed. Sunny the stuffed phoenix smiled at her from beneath the Ravenclaw flag her parents had hung on her wall some time before she'd come back for the holidays. Lily felt the blue and bronze didn't match her silver and black Falmouth Falcons posters around her room, but it looked in the right place up above the head of her bed. She couldn't explain it.

Murmurs of conversation drifted up from the kitchen. Yawning, Lily wrapped herself in a blanket and began the trek downstairs when she heard a rustling of paper and a note of concern in her father's voice.

"You see this in the _Prophet_?" he said.

A mug _thunked_ on the kitchen tabletop. "No," Lily's mother said. "Did George and Ron burn down Diagon Alley?"

"Wrong people, wrong place. Hogsmeade."

Lily held her breath and inched along the floor to hear. After a long pause, the paper rustled again and her mother said, "I don't know. Honeydukes has some crazy stuff. It was bound to explode someday."

 _Explode?_

"I don't know why they sell Acid Pops there. Things are ghastly, but they don't explode. Come on, Ginny, what is going to blow up in a sweet shop? And blow up the entire basement?"

"If you smuggled Peeves out of the castle and through the hidden passage, that'd do it."

Lily's parents were quiet for a moment. _Something blew up in Hogsmeade?_ As much as her mother downplayed it, Lily felt her heart racing and her thoughts darkening.

She wasn't alone with suspicion. "Hidden passage. Almost forgot that was there," her father mused, his voice deepening. "I imagine it'd caved in by now."

"Harry, you're doing that thing where you think the world's about to end due to some conspiracy. Next you're going to explain why it makes perfect sense."

"No, but…listen, Ginny. I know the kids go back tomorrow, but I have to go in. I just want to check on things."

"To work? Today?"

"I won't stay late. I just want to check on things."

"Harry. Not too late."

Lily pressed her back against the wall and digested the conversation as her father hurried out the door. Something exploded in Hogsmeade, in a place where, if her mother was right, a hidden passage exited from the castle. For someone or something that wanted to, say, worm its way past Hogwarts's defense and get in the castle, that sounded awfully tempting.

Al said to worry when their father sounded worried. _Well, it's about that time, Al._


	15. Grace's Tale

_**Thanks to my awesome reviewers, luluguineapig and allthingsbright, once more! Talk-heavy chapter ahead about just what may lurk outside the castle's grounds…**_

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Hogwarts was a bleak place to return to from the familiarity of Ottery St. Catchpole. Lily wasn't alone in feeling that way.

"Did everyone make it back from holiday? I mean, if someone got sick again…

"Hogsmeade! And Honeydukes, at that! Now we're never going to be able to go back, at least not this year. Damn it, Honeydukes was the best place."

"Do you think it's even safe that the Headmaster's re-opening Quidditch? I mean, if something blew up in Hogsmeade, what's going to stop it from getting on the grounds?"

Lily'd read enough from _Hogwarts: A History_ to roll her eyes at that last one. She even agreed with Maribor's decision to re-launch the Quidditch season. If anything, that was the one thing people talked about not with a sense of fear and suspicion, but excitement. Even with the weights of the illness scare, the attacks on creatures in the forest and the lake, and the Hogsmeade incident, Lily even found herself caught up in Quidditch talk.

Wayne threw dark looks at the Hufflepuffs across the room during the first Charms class of the new term. "We're matching up against them a week after Gryffindor and Slytherin kick things off," he growled, waving his wand without looking at the parchment he was supposed to be lighting on fire. Instead, his wand shot out a plume of black smoke, sending a pair of ants on his desktop dashing for safer ground. "Whoops. Anyway, it's gonna be embarrassing when we get destroyed."

"We're not going to get destroyed. Everyone says they're as bad as we are," said Logan in the seat next to him. " _Incendio_. Dammit."

His parchment blasted off across the classroom, smacking into the head of a tall Hufflepuff girl. She picked it up, giggled, and caught Logan's glare for a moment before looking away in a hurry.

"Banishing Charm's not for a couple years, Mr. Howe!" Professor Teague called out. "Not a bad effort, though."

Wayne snorted. "Mate, come on, at least I have an excuse for screwing up. Everyone in your family's magical. Lord, if I had that, I'd have at worst hit her in the crotch."

Lily ignored their banter. Her parchment was in the midst of a seizure on her desk, and every new _Incendio_ only made its jittering worse. Beside her, Natalie's perfect fire-making spell sent up a lick of flame across her parchment, flaring out after a few seconds and leaving brown scorch marks on the tabletop.

"I feel like I'm giving this thing cancer," moaned Lily, feeling helpless as her parchment convulsed. "How's your wand doing so much better?"

Natalie shrugged. It was that same little shrug Lily'd seen from Hugo over the holidays, and like her cousin, Natalie wasn't saying much. She'd hardly said more than ten words since coming back from the holidays a few days ago. Lily'd been happy to see the scar on her neck reduced and less discolored, but it was still noticeable to anyone with eyes – now more of an ugly, blotchy carmine than the previous blue-violet, and more of a snake-like hump than the mountain of scar tissue from before the holidays. Natalie's high-necked shirts kept wandering eyes away from whatever further damage scarred her, and she hadn't so much as grunted in response to questions about her illness. That made her coming back to school with a pair of purple-black bruises around her left cheek and eye all the stranger.

"Lily, you are committing a war crime against your parchment," Wayne noted. "What is even going on there?"

She resorted to slamming her copy of _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1_ on top of the parchment until it gave up at last. _I killed it. I killed my parchment_. Several staring Hufflepuffs snorted, and Amir and Trent broke out in laughter over the scene. Kaya glowered at her, as if Lily'd disturbed some all-important aura of concentration, even as she had reduced her parchment into ash ten minutes earlier. Through it all, Natalie didn't so much as crack a smile. She rested her chin on her right palm, waving her wand with her left and muttering incantations to the same sterling result over and over.

As a pair of Hufflepuffs in the corner of the Charms room set off chaos by lighting Professor Teague's robe on fire by mistake, Lily used the distraction to try and coax information out of her friend: "I think you got it. Is everything okay? I'm not going to say anything."

"Fine," Natalie murmured. She kept her eyes fixated on her burnt crisps of parchment.

"Well, you're a lot better at this than me," said Lily. She lowered her voice, made sure the rest of the class was still watching Professor Teague ask the Hufflepuffs if they knew how to point a wand, and added, "Nat, I'm happy to listen. Did something happen over the holiday? Just…" She pointed up to her own cheek, glancing at Natalie's bruise and biting her lip.

Her friend's eyes darkened. "I'm fine! That's it. I don't want to talk."

With that, she scooted her chair a few inches away, laid her chin on her desk, and refused to speak to Lily for the rest of Charms.

Natalie's reticence wasn't the only thing tempting Lily's curiosity, however. Al's rambling on the snow-covered hills back home had left something loitering in her mind. On the first Saturday of the new term, as week-old snow turned to mushy brown slush in the bright winter sun, Lily trudged out of the castle, past throngs of other students enjoying their first chance to venture the grounds since October, and out to the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

A thick layer of ice covered the Black Lake. Nothing was alive out here except for the other students off closer to the castle: The birds and mice and other creatures that called the forest home had hunkered down or flown off to steer clear of the snowstorms that had buffeted Scotland, and Lily's every breath echoed around the still landscape. Everything smelled fresh, a clean scent of nothing in particular besides pristine nature untouched by roving students for more than two months. Lily clutched her yellow winter coat around her, rubbing her arms to stave off the bite of the cold. The sun only just warmed her face up to keep the nippiness from becoming oppressive.

She plopped down on a rock, looking around to ensure she was alone, before she began tossing pebbles absent-mindedly out onto the lake ice. _Clack!_ Her first pebble skittered away, sliding along the ice for several meters.

"Where were you? It's been months since you've come down here. I've been all alone."

Lily caught her breath and looked up. Grace the forest ghost leaned against a tree nearby, camouflaging so well into the winter landscape that anyone could have been excused for missing her. She looked more tired than Lily had remembered from their last meeting back before the illness hit, weary, as if she'd weathered significant stress out in the forest. Loose threads hung from the hem of her gown.

After being so eager to get answers, Lily's voice caught in her throat. "Er, I was busy."

"Busy! No one came out here. Did you all pack up and move for two and a half months? I had no one to talk to, no one to speak with while I watched centaur body parts freeze and ice over."

"I – what?"

The ghost stuck out its jaw, as if Lily's absence was far more offensive than discussing dead centaurs. "It made a totem out of the dead. The beast. I'm all alone in here with it now. The surviving centaurs fled a month ago. It's just me. Imagine being here all the time, watching this horrible thing strut around in here, and not one of your professors even bothers to come this way and do anything about it."

If Lily's voice hadn't abandoned her before, it sure did now. _Talk about a horrible way to enter a conversation_.

"Listen – " she began, but Grace cut her off.

"Well go one, what happened at the castle, then?" she said, crossing her arms and sniffing. "I haven't seen any Qudditch. Nobody outside. Every year I was a student there was Quidditch and outdoor classes."

Lily pondered the seeming absurdity of telling a lonely, annoyed ghost that hid out in the forest about the goings-on at Hogwarts, but away she went. Grace narrowed her eyes when Lily mentioned the students falling ill, the fear sweeping the castle, the rumors, and finally, the explosion at Hogsmeade right before the end of the holidays.

As she finished, the ghost placed a hand on her hip, glanced longingly at the castle, and asked, "Did anyone die?"

"No," said Lily. "No, just…just lots of people sick."

"Hmph. No other ghost ever comes to join me. I spot that bizarre, frumpy girl with the glasses floating about in the lake from time to time, but I can't approach close enough. She's always inside the shell."

"Who?"

"I don't know her name. She – forget it."

Lily had no idea which "bizarre, frumpy girl with the glasses" floated around in the lake. "Why can't you go past the magical defense?" she asked on a whim. Grace hadn't been receptive the last time she'd asked, but it was worth a shot. "I've been reading about the castle's history, and ghosts can come and go just fine. My brother even said that Nearly-Headless Nick's gone across Britain. Why can't you go in?"

Grace stuck out her lower lip, again acting as if Lily had intruded on a very personal matter. She was silent for a few long minutes, and at last she sighed and said, "You can find a list of all the people who died in Hogwarts. Plenty, I assume. I'm not in it, though. It's shameful, as I said."

"Why?"

"Because no one else's ever killed themselves at Hogwarts!" Grace snapped at her, yelling so loud that Lily feared someone else would come investigate. The ghost buried her face in her hands, gliding behind a tree to hide. "Just walk away, then. You probably think me an abomination."

"No, I, er, what happened?"

Grace poked her head out from behind the tree. "Ages ago. I doubt anyone's still alive from back then. It's probably going on eighty years, maybe more. I was in my fourth year. Hufflepuff. I'd been alone for so long. I had one friend, a seventh year in my house. He was a brilliant boy, kind, warm. People were disgusted by us. A simp, they called him. Petulant and naïve, they called me. A crybaby. They hurt me, and I was always too afraid to fight back. So was he, so we made our own place. The castle was a nightmare and a dream to me."

"I remember so many other students doing so well, and all I could ask myself was, why them? Why can't I have that? There was one boy, a Slytherin, younger than me by two years. In two years he was an icon here. Brilliant. Poor background, but so well-liked he might as well have run this place. Tom Riddle. That was his name. I fashioned myself smart too, a bad background too, but I never had anything like that. I had my man, though."

"Then they took him from me too," she sniffed, her voice growing higher and more frantic. "His last year, my fourth, and they expelled him for something he never did. Some violation or other, I hardly remember the details now. I remember our Transfiguration professor was the only one who stood up for him. Albus Dumbledore. I've watched from the forest for so long, and when Professor Dumbledore became the Headmaster, I was actually happy for the man. But he couldn't help me back when I was alive."

She circled around the tree, shiny, ghostly tears streaming down her cheeks. "I thought we'd make it anyway. So what if he was expelled? He could wait for me to finish, and we'd make our future. My man had other ideas. 'I'll come back,' he said before venturing to some ruin or another, thinking he could dig up some ancient magical fortune. It was just a rumor. Not four weeks later I learned Inferi had killed him."

"You think you are lonely here, Lily Potter?" Grace went on, her voice hardening, her face growing dark. "I had nothing, and then I was less than nothing! They taunted me about him! About his death! And I had three more years of this! I could have dropped out, sure but where would that leave me? No family to speak of, no one who cared about me, a woman alone and without education in that era? I was finished. It was more painful to keep living than to just…just stop."

"So I came out here one night. Snuck out of the castle with a rope. You can imagine what I did with it. A loop around the neck and a fall from a tree, that was it," she said, her words grinding out of her throat as she finished. "Are you happy, now? There's some sort of dark magic in what I did to myself. I don't know if I cursed myself or the forest or what I did, but I'm bound here. I can't leave. I _hated_ that castle when I walked its halls, _hated_ it, and now I just want to go back inside. I just want to remember what it was like to hold his hand on winter days like this, and to step back into our common room in the basements, with the yellow light and the earth and the plants outside the window. Instead I get _this!_ "

Grace threw her hand behind her, her face full of rage. "Do you know the things I've witnessed out here, Lily Potter? Do you even know what happened here twenty years ago? I've heard things out here over the years. I know your last name. That's the only reason I trust you enough to say this at all, because I watched a boy named Harry Potter walk to his own death out here, struck down by the same _Tom Riddle_ I knew in the castle! Oh, I heard enough hearsay over the years out here to know Tom Riddle and Voldemort as the same man. And all my life, _afterlife_ , I suppose, I've hid and watched, and I am _tired_ of watching these horrible things happen. And now _this!_ Dead things, beasts, centaur corpses, I am tired of it! And I can't even die properly!"

She fell quiet, her breath, if that was what Lily imagined it was, exhaling in heaves. Lily didn't know what to say. Grace had unleashed her tale as if she'd blown a dam and released a river's pent-up energy. Shame, rage, hopelessness, it was years and years of darkness piled on top of each other. Lily'd been lonely for two months. She could hardly start to imagine what _eighty years_ of that would do to a person.

"If – " Lily started, careful to pick the right words so as to not kick off another eruption. "I'm sorry. That sounds horrible. But other people used to come through the forest all the time. You never talked with them?"

"What do you think? Why are you here?" said Grace, bitterness seeping into her voice. "I don't talk to people well. I spoke here and there with others, or tried to, on and off over the years. I think I scared most of them off in our first meetings. The last ten years I kept to myself. I'm only doing this now because I have nowhere to turn anymore. I don't want to see all the dark things out here anymore."

Lily's thoughts came back to her one-by-one as she processed the ghost's tale. "What, um…what happened twenty years ago? The battle? My father – "

"You're his daughter? Harry Potter's child?" Grace asked, her expression softening. "I thought just a relative. Well, alright. Smoke poured from the castle that night. A hundred dark wizards, maybe more, giants, Dementors, every nasty thing that can crawl out from the shadows lurked out here. I heard when Tom, Voldemort, called a cease-fire and asked for your father to meet him here. So he did. I wasn't going anywhere near the dark ones, but I saw Harry Potter from a distance, walking out to what he had to know was certain death. I heard a Killing Curse cast. Then, well…I've heard enough rumors over the years to know it didn't work. It's odd."

"Brave thing, though," the ghost added, looking at Lily with something between pity and admiration.

Lily swallowed hard, fighting back emotions as her gut dropped. She knew all about the battle and the second war against Voldemort, but to hear it from someone who'd _seen_ it like this, even a ghost, made it hit so much harder. What could her father have felt, knowing he was doomed walking out here, yet going all the same? It was too much for her to wrap her mind around. One thing wrong, one curse hitting him where it hadn't, and she wouldn't exist.

"Did they leave anything behind?" Lily said, her voice quivering. "Bodies? Or dark creatures?"

Grace snorted. "Of course they left bodies behind. Bodies everywhere in here, bodies in the lake, probably all over the grounds and you don't know it. It was chaos that night. I could only stay out of the way."

The ghost stopped, her eyes widening as if putting the pieces together. "Are you suggesting that something's trying to use the bodies? All the dead things around Hogwarts?"

"No, I mean, maybe."

"Where did you hear that?"

"Nowhere. I just thought it."

Grace looked thoroughly unsettled by now, as if an army of Inferi marched through the forest at that very minute. If she'd wanted to escape the forest and return to the castle before, Lily imagined she doubly wanted to do so now.

"Wait," the ghost said as Lily made to leave. "There's something you can – well, maybe try for me."

"What?"

Grace clenched her jaw, struggling over what she was about to say. "No," she admitted finally, "no, I doubt you'd want to, anyway."

"What is it?"

"Forget I asked, Lily Potter," said the ghost, gliding away into the forest. "There's nothing out here for you. Go back to the castle where it's safe and warm. I'm dead anyway. What does it matter?"

With that, she whirled around and glided away through the trees, disappearing into the wood and leaving Lily with more fears about what lurked out there than she had arrived with.


	16. Figures in the Snow

_**Thanks again, awesome reviewers! Rest assured, however, that the tough times have good reasons behind them. If nothing else, there's nothing like weathering hard times to bring people together - as this chapter is largely about, since I want to take a one-chapter break from pounding Hogwarts against the misery anvil. Lemon – fair point and good critique; I'm assuming you meant Grace and her history, since I haven't chronicled Natalie's background much yet (much more to come on that in the next book. Saving a lot for that one.) As for Ms. Ghost, don't want to say too much until later as not to spoil anything.**_

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For all of James's boasting about his Quidditch prowess, Lily had never seen her brother play in a real match before. She'd squared off against him in three-on-three games during family get-togethers, but nothing more. As January waned, however, Quidditch fever overtook Hogwarts. The pent-up frenzy of the previous term, combined with the delay to start the season, drove the whole student body into a fervor for the week prior to the match. Professor Longbottom freely handed out house points to the Ravenclaws during Herbology classes in what Wayne alluded to as "vote-buying for Gryffindor," while Professor Teague spent half of a Charms class debating odds and keys to the game, most of which revolved around the supposed prowess and advantage of Slytherin's Seeker, a third-year "prodigy," in Teague's terms, named Marcellus Southwick. The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs fractured into factions that often squabbled about which outcome would be better for their chances, a trend that led to loud late nights in the Ravenclaw common room.

Snow buffeted Hogwarts on the day of the match. Great white mounds stacked up outside the castle, and a dark gray blanket ran across the sky to the horizon. Lily felt cold just watching the snow fall in bunches from inside the warmth of the Great Hall. She tucked her scarlet sweater into her trousers before tucking into hot hash browns and fried eggs.

"It's cold," Natalie moaned in the seat next to her, scooping a dump truck's worth of black pudding onto her plate. Whatever was keeping her down, it wasn't affecting her appetite. In fact, the upcoming Quidditch match had drawn her out of her slump enough to make a noticeable difference: With no new funny business going on around Hogwarts since returning from the holidays, gossip had returned to the usual mundanities of the school year. While Natalie wasn't close to being back to her mischievous ways from September and October, Lily thought she seemed grateful for something else to focus on.

"Hopefully it'll be quick," said Lily. "Roxanne's always been pretty good whenever I played with her at home, so maybe she'll catch the Snitch quickly." At least her friend was wearing the right colors: Natalie pulled a red and yellow scarf tighter around her neck to ward out the chill that permeated even the Great Hall.

Lily didn't get time to compliment her on her choice before being disturbed: "Oh, look at that. You two girls finally saw the light. Can't beat 'em, join 'em, huh?"

Alroy McLaggen and Raimie Abdul chuckled behind them in the aisle between the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor tables, each one clad in scarlet from head to toe. "Might as well call the season after today," the latter laughed. "Not like you all or the Hufflepuffs are doing much."

"Oh, yeah, great," Lily groaned, trying her best to ignore them and focus on her breakfast.

"You know, if you're nice Lily," Alroy said, "I can try and get your brother's autograph after we spank Slytherin. I can give it you next Herbology class. Gonna have to pass on you, Nat. Don't want you biting my fingers off or something."

Natalie rolled her eyes. "Your ooze would be all over it, anyway."

"You really want one? I might have to start charging if I'm going to be the middle man in this."

"I think we're fine," Lily said loudly as they walked away, still laughing. "I wish that guy'd leave me alone."

"Good thing you didn't get into Gryffindor, then," Natalie murmured through a mouthful of sausage.

 _Well, Evie and her gang get on my nerves, too,_ Lily wanted to say. She held back: She'd seen her friend's looks towards Evie, Marie, and Kaya now and then, sadness clear in her eyes. Natalie had been in their circle too before the outbreak. Now with the three girls keeping their distance as if they'd catch an infection themselves through close contact, Nat had hung on to Lily as the only first-year Ravenclaw girl willing to stick around. _Maybe that makes me the back-up option, but screw it, at least I can be a friend. And can call someone a friend._

They huddled close on the long walk out to the Quidditch pitch. Despite a recently-cleared path cutting through the snowdrifts leading from the Entrance Hall to the pitch, Lily still sunk all the way up to her ankles in snow with each step. Not five minutes passed before the heavy fall had turned Lily's hair into a red-and-white checkerboard, spotted with thick flakes that refused to melt. Hogwarts's Quidditch stadium was no less affected by the snowstorm. Lily had to squint to make out the red- and green-spangled towers surrounding the pitch, and by the time she and Natalie fought their way to a pair of open seats in the rapidly-filling stands, they had to clear off piles of snow just to sit down.

Natalie jumped as soon as she sat. "Ooh! Cold! Wet!"

Even though they'd retrieved their thick winter cloaks before heading outside, both girls huddled together for warmth while waiting for things to begin. Lily debated in her head whether the match would begin before or after her nose froze off, and as she leaned towards the latter, she felt a heavy, blanket-like robe thrown over her shoulders.

She looked up to see Professor Vos heading down the stadium stairs towards the exit, throwing her a thumbs-up sign as he went. "Thanks, professor!" she shouted, hoisting it around Natalie's shoulders to share the warmth.

"Bring it back next Friday," he said in return.

"You're not staying?"

"Got something I want to look at. Give me the highlights next class."

 _What on earth is he looking at now of all times?_ The driving snow seemed like it'd make a poor time to do anything but curl up around a fire. _Unless he just doesn't give a damn about Quidditch and is headed off to do just that._ That was probably it, Lily figured as Gryffindor and Slytherin's teams trotted out onto the field. Even though the rest of the staff huddled under a large cloth awning on the far end of the field, Vos certainly didn't have an obligation to stick around.

"These over here taken?"

Logan and Wayne filed in to the stands across the aisle from Lily and Natalie, each clad in bright green. Lily's jaw dropped: "What are you wearing?"

Logan looked down. "Robes. Why?"

"They're green."

"Looks like, yeah."

"Why?"

Wayne laughed. "Those aren't our colors, either."

"Well, no, but – "

"Listen, I've figured out the chances," Wayne went on through Lily's protests. "Slytherin's just a supposedly good Seeker and an average everything else. Gryffindor's just loaded outside of a new Seeker. So let's think about it: We have no chance beating Gryffindor. Zero. None. Maybe, _maybe_ , we can beat Slytherin, so if they win today, it's a whole lot better for us, even if our chances still look like garbage. That about right?"

"But…" Lily gaped like a fish, flapping her arm towards the field. "It's – "

Wayne rolled his eyes. "Wow. Isn't that mousey kid in Slytherin in Potions your cousin?"

"Hugo's not mousey."

"So you're rooting for and against your family no matter who you go for," Logan concluded the argument for both of them. "Let's just shut up and watch already."

The snow fall eased up as the match began. Marcellus Southwick and Roxanne took off, skyrocketing high above the pitch as Gryffindor's Chasers blitzed Slytherin from the get-go. From the onset, Lily saw she had put the wrong relative on the Quidditch pedestal: James was a good Beater no doubt, completely controlling one of the Bludgers and pressing Marcellus every time he jockeyed for position, but Rose at Chaser was something else. She exploded through the Slytherin lines off the gun, rolling to the left side of the pitch with a fellow Chaser and tossing the Quaffle back and forth like a dart.

Perhaps most surprising about the match was the commentator. Lily had surmised some Gryffindor or staff member would be giving the play-by-play, but none other than Finley, Ravenclaw's own, narrated the match.

"Weasley's a blur on the left. Stupendous Bludger from Wood opening a lane, she drives, and scores! Ten-nothing early, and what a spectacular shot there from Rose! A ridiculous angle, a head-fake to lure Higgs away, and a clean throw through the hoop. The degree of difficulty on that, not to mention the power behind that throw…"

"Finley's pretty good at this commentating," Lily noted, watching the chubby third-year boy seamlessly call play after play.

Natalie frowned and pulled Vos's robe tighter over her shoulders. "Well I doubt he's much of a player."

"Oh, Nat, that's mean!"

Gryffindor unloaded both barrels on Slytherin. Rose scored twice more and her fellow Chasers added another two goals, racking up an early fifty-point lead just five minutes into the game. Lily felt a twinge of envy as she watched Rose and James exchange a high-five after a sixth goal upped their lead. _If Ravenclaw had had an opening…_

"Here's something!" Finley announced to the stadium. "Slytherin's Seeker's single-handedly keeping hopes alive for the contest. Marcellus Southwick, darn good eye, put us all two shame two years ago during flying lessons, leading new Gryffindor Seeker Roxanne Weasley on a wild chase through the upper pitch. It's been all offense all the time for Gryffindor so far, and if Slytherin can't mount a counter charge, Southwick'll have to find the Snitch in a hurry."

Lily smiled triumphantly at Logan and Wayne, both of who looked ready to hurl themselves off of the back of the stands. _Hugo probably looks the same…but he's not actually playing. I couldn't root for them. I just couldn't. That shade of green is ghastly._

Any counter attack from Slytherin went on hold as a Bludger smacked James in the shoulder, nearly knocking him off his broom. Lily gasped and jumped up, ignoring Natalie's cries for Vos's robe ("It's freezing!") and watching as her brother shoved away his teammates' attempts to help. Even from down in the stands Lily could see that he was angry, and a second later he swore so load she imagined the whole stadium heard it.

Confirmed: "Well, that's not very appropriate at all," Finley announced."

Lily looked back as Natalie demanded Vos's robe again, and something caught the corner of her eye. The snow had let up enough for her to see the rest of the grounds by now, and far off in the distance, on the edge of the forest, a bright blue flash jetted off into the trees.

"Here, have it," Lily said, tossing the cloak on her friend and climbing up to the top of the stands.

There – when Lily squinted, she could just make out a lone, tall figure standing off in the distance, his arm outstretched. With a second flash, a ball of light zoomed out of the forest, connected with the end of the man's arm – his wand? Her wand? – and disappeared. _What?_

"Lily what are you doing?"

Logan made a face as she took one last look towards the forest, watching as the figure spouted a tiny blue glow into the snow. "Nothing. Just wanted air."

Was that Professor Vos? If so, what was he doing on the edge of the forest, somewhere that, according to Grace, no staff member had ventured throughout the term? She ignored Gryffindor's second surge as they increased their lead to ninety-to-zero, thinking things over in her head. Her professor did have that trend of looking out over the grounds and the woods from the Astronomy Tower's portico every Friday night, as if he was trying to spot something. Now, with all the rest of the staff here at the Quidditch game, did he hope to find something? Or was it someone else?

She rubbed her eyes and glanced over to the staff awning again. _Wait_. He wasn't the only one missing after all. The Headmaster wasn't there either, off…where? The Headmaster who had been rather eager to clean up and hush up the dead merman, the one who had shut down the grounds and sent everyone home…

Her imagination running a mile a minute, Lily wanted to go back and see if the figure was still there. With Logan frowning at her and several other students nearby giving her strange looks, however, she ambled back to her seat instead. It was probably nothing anyway. She was making a mountain out of a molehill, and it wasn't the first time. Hadn't she told herself she'd be alone at Hogwarts forever back during the first term? That she'd catch the mystery illness as well? Yet here she was, huddling for warmth next to Natalie and doing just fine. _Stupid me_.

Lily shook it off as Slytherin mounted a charge, scoring three goals in a row to bring the score to one hundred ten-to-forty. They were still getting smashed, and James, angered by his earlier hit, pelted Bludgers as hard as he could at the other Chasers every time they tried to snatch the Quaffle away.

"Wood and Potter firing both Bludgers at Southwick – and Marcellus has seen something! He's off, big lead on Roxanne Weasley, headed towards the Gryffindor goals – "

Lily held her breath. Gryffindor was up by eighty points after another goal, but capturing the Snitch would put an end to things in a hurry. Roxanne closed in on Marcellus, helped by Gryffindor's Beater play as a Bludger forced her opponent to dive to the side to avoid an incoming Bludger.

"Coming over the top of the goals – and what a move by Southwick!" Finley shouted as Marcellus pulled up and headed the opposite direction. "Almost a dead stop as Weasley goes flying the other way – and he's got it! He's got the Snitch! A come-from-behind win for Slytherin when everything seemed to be going the wrong way!"

Logan and Wayne shouted. Lily cupped her face in her hands, bending over in her seat and groaning. She should've felt happy for Hugo and felt guilty for her disappointment, but she couldn't shake the loss as she watched James and Rose consoling Roxanne on the field as the Slytherins celebrated. Her cousin looked to be in tears.

By the time Lily filed out of the stadium, still stewing over the end result and hating Marcellus Southwick's guts for catching the Snitch, the distant figure by the woods was gone.


	17. The Lower Dungeons

_**Thanks to my n**_ _ **ew fave/follow, + lulu for the review! Shorter chapter here, leading to more later, plus introducing someone important I've hinted at before.**_

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The January snows stuck around into February, so thick and white that Lily borrowed the top of a wooden crate from Hagrid and, with a burst of boldness, dragged Natalie outside to go sledding on the castle grounds. Lily had caught her friend once alone in the first-years' bed chamber, her shirt pulled down past her shoulders and her hands running across a jungle of angry red lumps. Natalie's high collars concealed most of the damage from prying eyes, and she'd done her best to make light of the situation when she'd caught Lily staring in the bedroom, ("I guess I have an excuse never to go to a beach now. I never learned how to swim anyway") but Lily was bound and determined to keep her friend's thoughts away from such dark places, especially with the scars on her neck and chin looking more permanent with each passing day.

 _Especially_ _when everything else is finally going well_ , she thought. It was true: With her lonely weeks of the early term behind her and the fears of some killer infection dying down around the castle, Lily at last could smile without wondering what omen or mishap would cross her path next. Hogwarts mostly felt like the place she'd imagined every time she'd heard James and Al going on about their tales of school during summers and winter breaks past.

Grace's warnings still stuck around in Lily's head, but she found herself wondering less and less about what sort of attacker threatened the school. It was an odd yet mundane thing when classes were the source of her anxieties.

Defense Against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration in particular didn't treat her well. How she could memorize random facts about the composition of the moon's core yet forget the key characteristics that allowed someone to become a ghost baffled her, although Wayne had suggested that Ravenclaw's having the least social ghost out of all the houses didn't help. Lily had seen more of Grace than she had of the Grey Lady all year despite the latter calling Ravenclaw Tower home.

Not all classes mired Lily in frustration, however.

"How're you making yours look normal?" Wayne demanded in Potions, staring over Lily's simmering cauldron filled with a thin, teal liquid. "Not like poo, at least."

"Poo" was a good descriptor for Wayne's Softening Solution. His affinity for Charms hadn't translated to this class: An ugly lump of brown goop settled at the bottom of his cauldron, burping and bubbling every other second. Lily grimaced at the ugly sight, sniffed at the scent of rotting cauliflower that it gave off, and said, "I just read the instructions."

"So did I! I put all the stuff in the thing we put stuff in!"

"Then you missed either on the stuff part or on the thing part," Lily said.

Logan didn't look so impressed with Lily's solution. "It's supposed to be indigo."

"It's closer than Wayne's."

"Indigo. That's, like, not a real color," Natalie murmured, sweating and frowning at her pulpy red mush that whined whenever it gave off steam.

"Indigo's a color. It's on the rainbow."

"And if you look up, you might see the joke flying over your head, Logan. Whoosh! There it goes!"

Their banter drew the ire of Professor Piper. "You four!" she shouted over the sound of something exploding in a Slytherin cauldron across the room. "Quiet down or I'm splitting you up. Class is almost over."

Lily glared at her cauldron, as if her frustration would turn her solution indigo after enough time. Most of the other Ravenclaws and Slytherins were having problems, many with potions that had descended into true horror such as Wayne's, but Hugo's had turned a nice shade of navy and boiled with pleasant little bubbles in a corner of the class.

"Weasley's got it," Professor Piper called out, making Lily grown inside. _How again did she become head of Hufflepuff?_ "Are the rest of you not working hard enough? This is elementary."

Lily lagged behind at the end of class, helping Wayne spoon out his brown goop into a flask. From Professor Piper's expression, it was a losing proposition: Lily imagined her shouting at Wayne to take himself to St. Mungo's for an infection of brainlessness, or whatever had produced this abomination of a potion. _Gahh_. It reeked.

As Lily walked out of Potions and tried to rub the stink off of her palms, she spotted Hugo deep in conversation with another Slytherin boy. He wasn't one of the first-years, though – he was bigger, taller, and in fact, she recognized –

"Lily!" Hugo called her over. "Come help."

Wayne, hurrying away from the dungeons to escape Professor Piper's loud rebukes, looked back at Lily as if to say, _coming?_

She shook her head. "I'll be at lunch in a bit," she said, hoping whatever Hugo needed help with would resolve itself quickly. "What?"

"It's, uh," Hugo said, looking between his companion and his cousin. "Uh, Lily, this is my friend Scorpius. Ah, uh…my cousin, Lily."

Just like way back at the Welcome Feast, Scorpius looked like the least friendly person on planet Earth. His long silver hair drooped into his eyes, and his high cheekbones protruded so much that Lily wondered if he suffered from malnutrition. He wasn't a tall boy by any measure, but carried himself in a way that he conveyed both a sense of pride and a suspicion of others, what with his turned-up chin and his slouched shoulders. _The dumbest kid in the year, that's what Calla called him_.

"You're Finley's friend?" Lily said, cautious. "Finley Elkwood?"

Scorpius narrowed his eyes at her, and said in a voice much higher than she'd expected, "Yeah. Go on, laugh."

Lily scrunched up her face and took a step back. "I'm not going to laugh."

"Psh. Sure."

Hugo's nervous eyes danced back and forth between them. "Er – Lily, Scorpius's cat ran away down here, and I'm going to help find it. I just want…well, one more's better."

 _Why does everyone have cats? James, this guy._ Lily wanted to run off to the Great Hall and get away from the claustrophobic cobblestone supports of the dungeons, but she couldn't leave Hugp all on his own. He was the only person in their family she surmised was having a more up-and-down year than her.

 _Fine_. "What's the cat look like?" she sighed.

"White. Small," Scorpius gruffed. He still looked at Lily as if he expected her to try and jinx him at any minute. "Ran off towards the lower dungeons, the caved-in part."

Lily could not for the life of her figure out why Hugo had made friends with this kid. "Fine. Just lead the way."

The dungeons led much further than Lily imagined. She'd only ever been up to the Potions classroom, but a winding network of cobblestone-lined halls and alcoves stretched down into Hogwarts's sublevels. The air chilled the further they went down, and by the time Scorpius led them to the end of a hallway that faced a doorway full of stone rubble, Lily clutched her arms for warmth. A small hole opened up in an arch underneath most of the rubble, with only darkness behind it.

"Wait a minute," Lily said as Scorpius moved to pull out some of the stones. "Isn't this the collapsed part the Headmaster mentioned at some point?"

"So?" Scorpios scoffed, staring back at her as he got on his hands and knees. "Gonna write Hugo and me up?"

"It's just gonna be a little bit, Lily," Hugo added.

 _This is a shite idea_. She swallowed her nerves and looked on as Scorpius picked away at the hole until it was large enough to fit a person. It was, well…it was _against the rules_. The last thing Lily wanted to do was attract the ire of Headmaster Maribor, even if the merman incident was well in the past. Finley's warning back at the Welcome Feast that he'd expelled a student last year crept in the back of her mind.

"Pansy," Scorpius muttered at her as he crept under the rubble, snaking out of sight into the darkness beyond. Hugo scowled at her and followed. Not wanting to be left alone, nor called a snitch, Lily bit her cheek, dropped to the floor, and crawled after them.

The entranceway wasn't the only cave-in, with further rock piles later on indicating that whatever was down here, other students hadn't barged past. Scorpius wasn't giving up, however: When he came to a second and even a third blockage farther along the darkness, he pulled stones out of the way until he could fit through, Hugo following after him. Lily had no choice but to keep following.

The air was thick down here, smelling of strange things, old cabbage, earthworms, and salt. Scorpius lit his wand, and the dull white light illuminated a narrow, damp passageway. Tiny statuettes lined the halls, oddly inhuman, their faces covered in beards that stretched down to their chests. Some carried wands, others staffs, all looking reverential, as if built in a far different time. Finally they came to a stone wall, cutting off their path and ending the hallway entirely.

"Well, that's it," Lily said, feeling nervous about being down here at all. This place creeped her out. "Your cat didn't come down here, or we just missed it. Can we go back?"

Scorpius shushed her with his hand. He reached out as if he saw something, and to her shock, he reached his hand straight _through_ the wall. "It's an illusion," he murmured. "There's just emptiness past here."

Lily looked frantically at her cousin. Forget being a friend, Scorpius was just a bad influence. He was going to get them all in trouble. Yet Hugo just stumbled on after him, and Lily, too frightened to leave her cousin alone, tromped on in the cat quest.

"I don't know what's down here, but it's probably caved in for a reason," Lily said, her teeth chattering. "Look, if we – "

A loud meowing cut her off. Scorpius caught his breath, dashed a few paces to his right, and called out, "Arach! There you are! Get over here, dumb cat!"

Something small and pale bounded into his arms as if this place wasn't strange at all. Lily let out an exhale. _Time to go back. Let's go._

The other two, however, didn't look eager to leave. For all his depression during his first term at Hogwarts, Hugo had a look that was oddly familiar to Lily. It wasn't the same sort of resigned sadness she'd known over the past half-year, but an older one, the mischievous one that she'd known from growing up with the kid who had caused more than enough chaos to make her uncle Ron and aunt Hermione pull their hairs out in frustration.

"What d'you think's down here?" Hugo asked to no one in particular, looking around the strange halls and at the old, damp cobblestone. "It's odd."

"Let's look around," Scorpius suggested, to Lily's horror. "No one's down here, anyway. We might as well."

Lily felt her heart drop out as the boys plowed forward down into the lower tunnels, descending further into colder and thicker air. She dashed up, cornering Scorpius as her cousin disappeared into the darkness, only his lit wand lighting the way. "What are you doing?" she demanded. "You got your cat. Let's go."

"I'm exploring," Scorpius snorted, shoving her away. "Hugo and me. Go back if you want."

"No! I don't want Hugo wandering around."

"Why? He's not your slave."

"No – look, I don't know you besides that you're supposedly his friend, but you're going to get him in trouble!"

He scoffed and jerked away from her. "Deal with it, _Lily_. We're having fun. If that's against your religion, go cry somewhere else. I don't want you here anyway; he asked for your help. God, I bet you're butt-buddies with his sister."

"What?"

"Rose. Stupid prat, she – "

Lily felt hot enough to pull her wand on Scorpius just as Hugo called at them from further down the hall: "Are you guys going back? What are you doing?"

"Nah, comin'," Scorpius shouted before Lily could answer.

 _God damn it. Hugo, honestly_. Lily grumbled and hurried after them, still not secure in leaving her cousin with the only kid he called a friend. She'd had trouble making friends too, but Natalie wouldn't have dragged her through the caved-in dungeons, would she have?

 _Actually, she probably would find that hilarious. Wayne, too_ , a small voice said in the back of Lily's head. _Trying to shoot goop at Alroy was a good start_.

Lily felt tiny down in the castle's bowels. The hallways had grown, now at least twelve feet tall and reaching wide from wall to wall. Illusions, cave-ins – wherever they were in the castle, few people had likely found it. Hugo and Scorpius examined a cylindrical stone door at the end of the hall, a large, closed-off gate that seemed almost like a lift into some depths far below Hogwarts. Lily stepped back, trying to summon up the courage to caution them against venturing even _further_ beneath the dungeons, when something grabbed her.

A hand pulled Lily through the wall, another illusion, and she tumbled onto her back on the damp cobblestone: "Oof!" When she looked up, the last person she wanted to see down here stared back.

Headmaster Maribor loomed large over her, his wand aimed straight at her face, little orange and red flames flickering from its tip. Dirt streaked his face, and his eyes looked more intense than she'd ever remembered them from the Great Hall, more so even than on the night she and James had uncovered the dead merman. He stepped past her without a word, passing through the wall illusion, and Lily heard a shout of surprise from Hugo on the other side. Just as she scrambled to her feet to jump back into the hall, she heard a loud, low rumbling behind her. Turning, Lily saw what definitely was an old, stone lift rise up into a cylindrical alcove in the rock.

Professor Vos stepped out. He stood still as if in shock for one moment, but raised his wand the next, aiming straight at Lily's forehead. "The hell are you doing down here?"

Lily stuttered, lost for words: "I – I – "

"What's on my office's wall? Left side when you walk in?"

"Er – a flag? Green and red? And a knife. Please, I'm just helping – "

That was apparently enough for Vos, as he grabbed Lily's arm and hauled her past the illusion and out into the corridor. Scorpius and Hugo cowered against a wall as Maribor loomed large over them, and the Headmaster glared at Lily's way as Vos brought her out.

"What in the name of Merlin are you three doing?" he demanded, his voice like poison in the thick air. "Is a caved-in hallway that I explicitly have warned against in the past a welcome sign to you?"

Scorpius looked far too frightened to say anything, and Hugo's mouth gaped like a fish. Lily tried to stutter out a defense, but all she managed was a low groan that the Headmaster ignored.

To Lily's surprise, it was Hugo who managed to speak at last: "Please sir – er, we were, er, looking for a – we were finding Scorpius's cat."

Maribor glared at the small white kitten as if he could kill it with his eyes alone. Now Lily knew what Vos had meant when he'd mentioned that the Headmaster had taken on and killed three dark wizards during the second war against Voldemort: His eyes creased into tiny slits, and his lips tightened so much, his fist clenching his wand so tightly, that she feared he'd hex them all into oblivion if they so much as moved.

"Your cat ran all the way down here?" Maribor asked Scorpius, his voice boiling through his teeth. "You decide to take it for a walk?"

"N – no – "

"Your father is an upstanding member of Britain's wizarding community, and for good reason, since he has plenty to be ashamed of," Maribor sneered at Scorpius. "How do you think he would respond if I told him his only child was running around beneath the bowels of Hogwarts, looking for cats? And if, instead of a cat, you'd found an Inferius? Or a wraith?"

Lily whimpered, and Maribor rounded on her in a flash. "And I doubt the head of the Auror Office would look kindly on his only daughter and youngest child digging up who-knows-what when this castle's experienced so much upheaval over the past half-year! It was hard enough writing to him that we had to keep you in the hospital wing for fear of catching illness, Ms. Potter. Imagine my letter when I described you as bloody bits after some danger we'd overlooked had had its way with you."

She had no idea what Maribor was going on about, but Lily pressed her back into the wall, too scared to say another word. The Headmaster look angry enough to tear the three of them apart limb by limb, and expulsion seemed like the least he could dish out.

Professor Vos coughed behind the Headmaster. "John, just for what it's worth, we haven't found anything down here, yet. We don't need to crucify the kids over what we imagine could attack the school from down here."

"That kind of attitude cost Albus Dumbledore back in '92 with the Chamber of Secrets," Maribor hissed. "I will not show that kind of weakness."

"And we don't have to. But we can dissuade the other students without making a scene by expelling three kids who went exploring. Malfoy's even got a cat with him."

"Clever ruse."

"And we don't have anything to say otherwise. Fuck, they're kids, John. I bet you did some stupid shit as a kid. God knows I did. Exploring's not a sin."

Maribor looked steamed as Vos glanced Lily's way with a small shake of his head. _Don't say anything._ "Fine. Fine. Fifty points from Ravenclaw, a hundred from Slytherin. All three of you have detention for the next four weeks, and I'm splitting you apart. Scorpius, you can have yours with Professor Vos here. Weasley, I'll send a note to Professor Piper saying you'll be taking her evenings. Ms. Potter, you can take yours with Professor Longbottom. And you can eat your weekday suppers in their offices before you do your detentions. Maybe when your fellow students see you're absent every night they'll realize not to go about repeating your idiocy."

"Take them back up," the Headmaster spat at Professor Vos, stalking away down the corridor. Vos watched him go, his face torn between sympathy and scorn. Lily was too scared to say or do anything.

"I expected something smarter from you, Lily," Vos said with a scowl, waving at her, Scorpius, and Hugo to follow him up. "I think you at least can figure out something's up around Hogwarts. That's disappointing."

Lily wanted nothing more than to shrink into a tiny ball and disappear. Scorpius was the only one daring enough to say anything: "Sir, what's down here?"

Vos held them up, glancing back at them and struggling over whether or not to answer. "I don't know. All I know is that exploring the parts of the castle where even the staff tread lightly is a dumb idea when people are coming down with mystery illnesses and things are randomly exploding in Hogsmeade. If I hadn't have been a kid once, I'd call the three of you morons."

With that, he led them up and out of the lower dungeons without another word.


	18. Turning To and Fro

_**Thanks to luluguineapig and WeedyPotter for the awesome reviews! Much more of a character-oriented chapter again for this one and a lead in for the next stretch of the story here.**_

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"Maybe someone's growing something down there. Or hiding someone down there, like a fugitive or something. Or maybe there's some sort of bomb or something."

"Nat, who hides a fugitive in a _dungeon_? Usually you're trying to escape the dungeons when you're a fugitive. It's probably just the Headmaster not wanting parents to lose their minds after someone gets crushed by rubble."

"Psh. That's so boring."

Wayne and Natalie's banter sailed past Lily's ears in the Ravenclaw common room. She didn't want to talk about this, especially after the whole school had figured out after the Slytherin and Ravenclaw hourglasses had seen significant dwindling on her, Hugo, and Scorpius's behalves. Still, as she clutched a letter a large tawny owl had brought her at breakfast, she imagined things could have gone worse.

 _Lily,_

 _Your Headmaster wrote to us. I don't know if you were leading Hugo and his friend somewhere or the other way around, but please be careful, sweetie. Dad and I aren't going to get mad at you for getting in a little trouble, not when we did way too much of it when we were at Hogwarts, but we don't want you getting hurt, either. There's something strange going on at school this year. Keep your eyes open, alright? Next time you see something that might be wrong, at least go to Al if a teacher's out of the question._

 _And don't worry about detentions with Professor Longbottom. He and Dad'll laugh it off._

 _-Mum_

 _P.S.: If you're bored and want to explore, the kitchens are a better idea._

"That's not even that bad. Why're you worried?" Logan said from over her shoulder, propping up his arms on the back of her chair and glancing over the note. "If I had what sounds like the coolest mum of all time, I wouldn't be worried."

Lily grumbled and stuffed her mother's letter in her trouser pocket. "It's still bad. She's still disappointed. Look at it!"

"Lily, your cousin dashed out of breakfast crying. I don't think this is bad."

 _The perks of not having Aunt Hermione as a mother_. She clearly hadn't taken mercy on Hugo given his sour reaction that morning. "Fine, but I still have detention for four weeks. And I don't even get to eat supper with everyone else."

"It's Saturday today, and it's just supper. Lily, stop thinking that the worst possible thing is going to happen."

"Well, fine. Then there were the fifty points the Headmaster took."

Amir Khoury, who was nearby jotting down Astronomy homework alongside Trent Thorpe, grunted, "Hufflepuff's killing everyone anyway. Gryffindor might catch up if they win in Quidditch, but I doubt it."

"Good," Natalie sniggered. "I want to see Alroy and Raimie cry when they realize they can't win."

"Did those two, like, take your dog or something, Nat? Every time."

"No. They're just prats."

Lily huffed and pushed herself out of her chair as Trent noted to Amir that, no, the Moon did not circle the Earth every three hours as his chart showed. It was easy for Logan and Natalie and the rest of the Ravenclaws to tell her not to worry about getting in trouble. They weren't the ones dealing with it. Heck, it was even different with her mother telling her to keep her chin up, writing from so far away, not knowing what it was to see Headmaster Maribor's burning eyes from a few feet away. They just didn't understand.

Logan caught Lily before she made it to the common room exit. He opened his mouth to say something, stopped, and gave her an awkward pat on the shoulder. Feeling confused, Lily looked back as she left the common room, seeing a sad expression on his face. _Boys sometimes_.

"Halt!" the eagle statue cried at her as she hurried down the steps of Ravenclaw Tower. "Answer me this question, ye! What has three – "

"I'm leaving, not going in!"

"You didn't even hear what I was going to ask, hellion! I could've asked your favorite color!"

Morose skies drizzled cold rain out on the grounds. Lily was alone out here as she pulled on her blue rain jacket and pulled her hood over her hair. Right now she didn't feel like she deserved the warm fires, the lively chatter, and the relaxing night sky ceiling of the common room. No, the sight of Hogwarts's imposing stone walls and towering spires, so cold and rigid in the bad weather, fit her low spirits.

With no better idea in mind, Lily wandered across the grounds and knocked on Hagrid's door. She heard Mouse the pot-bellied pig snorting within, but one knock, two, three, and no other answer greeted her. Hagrid's hut was a lifeless, sopping mess in the rain, and his vegetable patch, now filled with cabbages the size of her head, wilted under the relentless drizzle, the greens and browns bleeding away into an all-consuming gray grain that swallowed up the world on days like this.

Lily couldn't much return to Ravenclaw tower with her hair in a mess, her spirits deflated, and her coat trickling streams in her wake. Ambling about, she moseyed off along the edge of the forest in the general direction of the Quidditch pitch in the distance. It wasn't such a grand stadium today, but nothing more than a ring of skeletal wooden giants that had lost their colorful cloaks that draped them every match day. Splashing mud lapped at Lily's ankles, and now and then she felt the cold infiltration of water in her boots.

A familiar glow tailed her from just inside the boundary of the woods. "What're you doing out on a day like this? It's as gloomy over there as it is in here."

Grace hovered in the tree line, wringing her ghostly hands and watching Lily with a mix of confusion and pity. "I'm just trying to be alone," Lily muttered, walking on. She didn't want to talk to the ghost today, even if Grace did feel like one of the only people – _people?_ – at the school who got her.

"We're good company, then," Grace said. "Something's wrong, hm? What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Lily, you're walking alone in the rain. I'm not going to tell anyone. I haven't got anyone to tell as it is. No one wants to listen to me but you."

Whatever it was that pushed her, Lily found herself spilling her guts to Grace. Her little anxieties, her worries about class and friends and getting in trouble and what her parents thought, all of it came pouring out like the rain. Lily couldn't stop herself once she'd started speaking. It felt _stupid_ , like she was saying everything into the mirror or into her bedsheets, but out it came nonetheless. To Grace's credit, the ghost didn't so much as bat an eyelash the entire time. She added little tidbits here and there, an "Oh" or an "I'm sorry," but let Lily run on until she wore herself out with words.

Only after Lily exhausted herself and sat down on a rock, her voice finally cracking under the eruption, did Grace throw in her opinion: "You're under a lot of pressure. All that's happened is a lot of weight on a gentle soul."

"I'm not gentle."

"You're giving, kind, and want to help people. It's not a personal failing if those things trip you up from time to time," said Grace, twirling around a tree and watching Lily with bright eyes. "I think at the end of the day you just want to do some good for others. You struggled making friends, but you've done better! You got shut away in the hospital wing, but here you are talking outside now! I even heard the roar from the Quidditch pitch out here the other day. These things got better. Getting in trouble is part of growing up. It won't hang over you for long."

"You don't know that!" Lily blubbered, shouting at the muddy grass more than at Grace. "It's all hanging around until the next time I screw up and do something dumb, and then what'll happen?"

The ghost was quiet, letting Lily cry out her upheaval. "You just want to help. Even if it doesn't go well all the time, you mean well."

"Well, fine and all, but if it keeps ending up all wrong…"

"It doesn't have to!" Grace shouted, before lowering her voice and her face and adding, "You can help me. I trust you."

"Help what?"

Grace pointed with one spectral finger towards the castle. "Help me get away from this dark forest. I found something in here. I have so much time to search and so much time to think, and I have an idea of how I could go back to the castle. I could do it, but I'd need help."

"Help with what?"

"I left something behind in here, something when I…" her voice trailed off. "A pendant. Stupid, really, but I wore it all the time. It fell off of my – my, er, body, and something in here must have carried it away. I spotted it the other day for the first time since all then, and I think if you carried it up to the castle, I could cross the barrier."

"You want me to – to go into the forest? It's forbidden."

Grace looked hesitant. "I know, I know, but it'd only be for a few minutes. It's not far from here. I'll protect you! I'll make sure nothing tries to hurt you. And think about it – you wouldn't have to come down to this nasty forest to talk. We could be inside the warm castle like this, somewhere private, away from all the other voices and faces, but out of the cold rain. I know it's hard, but you're a good person, Lily. Really."

Part of Lily fought to jump up right then and follow Grace out to the woods, but something held her back. She was in enough trouble as it was, and if a teacher, or Merlin forbid, the Headmaster, saw her tromping out of the Forbidden Forest, they'd give her no quarter.

"I can't," Lily squeaked, unable to look Grace in the face. "I can't, I'm sorry."

"It's alright, you'll be alright, really!"

"I should go."

"Lily, please. I'm asking you as a friend. You're the only one who's even willing to talk to me. You take out so much of your time to be nice to me, to hear me out, and I want to give that back – but I can't do it stuck out here with the shadows and beasts."

On the verge of tears again, Lily jumped up and ran off, Grace's voice fading behind her. She glanced over her shoulder once to see the ghost watching her leave, Grace's crestfallen face full of sadness and disappointment. _I'm letting everyone down no matter what I do_.

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Tromping out to the greenhouses on Monday felt so much worse for Lily. She kept her head down on the walk to Herbology, glancing up towards the Forbidden Forest from time to time as if Grace would transform into a ghostly horror that would charge out and berate her for turning tail and abandoning her. Then there was the prospect of detention: Herbology was the last class of the day, and when the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors hiked up towards the castle at the end of the day to clean up before supper, Lily stuck around alone in the bright greenhouse, watching twisting yellow vines battle each other along one wall as the orange light of the setting sun shined in through the opposite one.

"You don't have to look so tortured about it. It's just detention," Professor Longbottom commented as he waved his wand at the rows of Burundian redpitchers, collecting the pots in one swipe and lining them up in perfect rows on either side of the door to the adjacent greenhouse. "When you do something like let a suspected killer into your common room, that's the time to feel down."

"Nobody does that kind of thing, professor," Lily groaned.

Professor Longbottom gave her a wry expression. "Sure, it sounds outrageous now. I had a tough time remembering the passwords for our common room, and it just made sense to write them down on a piece of parchment. I didn't expect Sirius Black of all people to find it."

Lily didn't know whether to shut up or start laughing. "You…you did what?"

"On second thought, I'm not going to share that story. Retelling it sounded a lot better in my head."

He pulled out a pair of large, brown, lumpy felt bags and tossed one to Lily. She opened it to reveal hundreds of tiny, wriggling white grubs. Lily jerked away in horror, nearly dropping the bag. "I thought we'd do something easy tonight, if we're going to have a lot of evenings together in the future," Professor Longbottom said, not noticing Lily's discomfort. "These are really fascinating little critters. Outback whiteworms – you only find them in Australia, somewhat rare, but just incredible for the soil. In fact, just a dozen of these guys can…"

Lily let Professor Longbottom run on for several minutes about the virtue of the tiny worms. She figured it was better than whatever Professor Piper likely was having Hugo do down in the dungeons, and if nothing else, Professor Longbottom wasn't treating her like some sort of criminal.

"…and just like that, you can grow anything. Cabbages, squash, everything all the way up to really, really interesting plants. Carnivorous ferns, herbs that release nutrients back into the soil, shrubs that flower in winter, all sorts," he went on. Finally he stopped, as if remembering that he was indeed giving a student detention, and added, "Oh, right. Anyway, Hagrid's vegetables have been having a tough time with all the rain. I thought we'd add some of these little guys to the soil and spruce 'em up. The Headmaster told me he was keeping you from supper at the Great Hall for whatever reason, so I figure Hagrid's place is as good as any to eat."

 _That's…kind of him_. Lily figured she'd be washing out pots with her bare hands or wiping off all sorts of plant pus from tables. Hanging out with Hagrid was a nice surprise.

She kept her head down as they walked out to the far end of the grounds, careful not to peek into the woods for fear of who might be watching back. Lily imagined Grace wouldn't pop up with a teacher around, but even just glimpsing the ghost she'd spurned felt like a weight dragging her down.

The cabbages looked even worse two days after the rainstorm, and rows of squash and carrots further down the vegetable patch were in need of something far more than sprucing up. "We're gonna get a little dirty," Professor Longbottom said, swinging his bag of grubs back and forth as if that was the most exciting thing he could imagine for a Monday evening. "Second nature to you by now with the redpitchers though, huh?"

Lily forced a smile. The work was surprisingly soothing: Digging little trenches around each plant, dumping in a grub or two, and burying them back up with dirt kept her occupied and out of her own head. After a while it was even fun watching the little grubs diving into the turned-up earth as if tucking into a long-awaited meal.

"I don't think Herbology was ever your father's favorite subject," Professor Longbottom said as they moved over to the squash patch. "He went on to NEWT-level, sure, but it was always Defense Against the Dark Arts with Harry. I mean, he was teaching the rest of us by his fifth year. That's brilliant stuff."

"I'm terrible in that class," Lily muttered.

Professor Longbottom shrugged. "Eh, never was my best, either, but I got good after a while. Helped having someone who ended up defeating Voldemort teaching me, though. Took a while, but whenever your dad mentioned that it was less about all the spellwork and more about keeping cool and trusting your wits, ah, that made it easier. Not _easy_ , but easier."

Lily shrugged and focused on planting a pair of grubs. If anything, that made her feel worse: _Dad's great at everything. Yeah. I know_. _I'm not_.

"You've got a knack for Herbology," Professor Longbottom said, rooting around in the soil and digging an S between three squash plants. "Alright, we're not doing much tough in the first year, but your homework's always on point. Professor Vos told me you're his best student in Astronomy, too."

Another shrug. _Doubt Vos'll say that now that he caught me with the Headmaster._

"In fact," Professor Longbottom went on, oblivious to Lily's train of self-doubt rolling along through her thoughts, "I spoke to your dad just a week ago. I told him how good you were doing, and he looked real happy to hear it. Says you don't write enough, but besides that, well."

Lily looked up, a funny feeling in her throat. "You told him that, sir?" she croaked.

"Well, it's just the truth. I figured I'd chat with him before he and a few of the other Aurors came down to Hogsmeade next week. That's always busy work. I remember after the war and school, all of us around that time were Aurors. Your dad, your uncle Ron, and I…"

Lily stopped listening for a moment. Her father was coming to Hogsmeade? What for? Her mind blanked, and she ended up dropping three dozen grubs into one ditch.

"Probably a few too many there," Professor Longbottom said, scooping some of them out and burying them beside another plant.

"He's coming to Hogsmeade next week?" Lily blurted out.

Professor Longbottom blinked at her. "Well, yeah. He and a few others at his office; I think Michael Corner, Evie's father, is coming too, maybe Dean – a classmate of ours from back when – and a couple others I know."

 _EVIE's father is an Auror? Please don't ever invite them over for dinner, Dad_. "Why?"

"Oh, it's just your dad looking into things. He always has had a thing about finding problems where no one else could see them and going at them hard. Everything up here at Hogwarts this year has him a bit on edge, I think. Well, all of us, really. I can't say I'm chipper about it all."

Lily contemplated the new information so much that she didn't even hear Hagrid's giant footsteps thudding over the soft earth towards them. "Not very excitin' detention fer the troublemaker, Neville."

"Just wrapping up, Hagrid," Professor Longbottom said, piling a mound of dirt over a cluster of happy worms.

"Yeh don' ever come by enough," Hagrid bellowed with a smile, hoisting Lily up with one hand and nearly picking her off the ground. "Yer brothers an' cousin Rose are in all the time."

Lily blushed. She wasn't about to mention that she'd been by just two days prior. "Just busy."

"The trouble kind'a busy, yeh," Hagrid laughed. "Got a while before yeh catch up ter Neville here, though! His firs' year – "

"That's, er, something of ancient history Hagrid, I think Lily and I – "

" – he goes and loses fifty points in one night fer Gryffindor, roamin' the halls at odd hours with yer dad, Hermione, and Malfoy. So I had to drag all o'them out into the woods at midnight. That's a real detention."

Out of everything she'd ever learned from Hagrid and Professor Longbottom, that was the best. Lily let out a little laugh at imagining her father as a first-year tagging along with Hagrid in the Forbidden Forest as a detention. Maybe that would have been exciting, but as far as punishments go, it wasn't the worst possible thing that could've happened.


	19. The Three Broomsticks

_**Thanks for the great reviews, allthingsbright, Mermaid1108, and gracefish21! On Scorpius & Lily's future – not going to spoil anything since this is going to be a long, long story, but suffice to say, the Malfoy name needs a little redemption, and Scorpius has a…uh, significant role to play in Lily's life. Book 1's more of an introduction to Lily and the mountain she faces, with those who will surround her building up more as the train picks up steam. **_

_**That's largely the same for Lily's struggles: You're spot-on, bright, that our protagonist's largely squared off with her own inhibitions and with finding a connection with the people around her. She's facing obstacles – and later, villains – that Harry and Ginny didn't face during their time at Hogwarts.**_

 _ **As a side note, this chapter…grr. Too many revisions. Important for the climax of the story, but ugh writing it.**_

* * *

Routine brought relief. Class, meals, tromping out to the greenhouses for detention, sleep – Lily found comfort in the mundane rhythm of everyday Hogwarts. Late February eased into the first week of March, with the days growing longer and the sun sneaking through the depressing cover of stratus clouds now and then.

The mood lightened around the castle with no new upheavals, and even the staff seemed upbeat. Professor Yaro blew two Transfigurations classes discussing all the quirks and peculiarities of the Durmstrang Institute with his first-years, and Professor Longbottom was keen to laughing off floral mishaps that sprang up from dealing with the next plants he tasked Lily and the others with, feisty, leafy ferns from Colombia that were prone to shrinking away into the soil any time the students tried to prune them. Even his detentions went well, as he thought up something new for Lily every evening and spent most of the time regaling her with tales of her mother and father's exploits during their time at Hogwarts.

It came as something of a shock when Lily, on the first Monday of March, left her detention only to run straight into Headmaster Maribor loitering outside of the greenhouses. She caught her breath and backed against a wall, expecting some new punishment handed down from on high. _I haven't done anything! Promise!_

"Let's take a walk, you and I," the Headmaster said. Lily knew that it wasn't a suggestion.

She followed closely behind him as he strolled out across the grounds, glancing now and then towards the lake, Hagrid's hut, out at the Quidditch pitch. After a few minutes of silence, he said, "Tonight at supper I told everyone I'm opening Hogsmeade for visits. Just this weekend. One day for the whole year. Events have calmed down enough for a break."

Lily said nothing. _Convenient timing with Dad and the other Aurors sniffing around_. It wouldn't matter to her regardless. First-years weren't going anywhere near Hogsmeade.

"You and your classmates aren't old enough to visit town yet," Maribor added a second later. "Yesterday, however, I received a note from your father. He's requested to see you tomorrow on High Street down in the town."

Barely holding back her surprise, Lily gasped, "I can go to Hogsmeade?"

"Let me say that I think this is a terrible idea," Maribor said between clenched teeth. "Hogsmeade is a large place, filled with many who aren't receptive to law and order. Even allowing third- and fourth-years there unsupervised is pushing it. However, I respect your father too much to deny him. If he wants to see you in the town, I won't say otherwise."

"Let me add," he added as Lily felt excitement shoot through her veins, "that you're going to stick with him the whole time you're there. You'll meet Professor Longbottom in the Entrance Hall. Neville will walk you down to Hogsmeade. You'll meet your father there, and when he's done with you, he'll walk you back to the castle. Any deviation and I'll throw you in detention for another month. Is that clear?"

Lily nodded. "I go down and I come back up when I'm done. Right."

"Right," the Headmaster said. He crossed his arms over his chest, watched the crescent moon rising over the lake, and muttered, "I've never met your father in person. Only ever heard the stories. Listened to _Potterwatch_ while on the run during the war. Harry got all the glory, all the fame, while the remnants of the Auror Office and I squared off against Death Eaters, Snatchers, and worse at regular odds of three-to-one. Your dad was off saving the world while we saved our skins. Every day was kill or be killed. We broke a dozen laws every twenty-four hours trying to stall Voldemort's advance. But your dad put down the Dark Lord, and I'll always respect him for that. It'd be nice if some of that washed over you and your brothers."

"He'd probably meet with you if you asked."

Lily didn't know what prompted her to say that, but as soon as the words left her lips, a strange look washed over Headmaster Maribor. He wrinkled his brow, narrowed his eyes, and replied, "Legends are best left in our heads. That's all I wanted, Ms. Potter. Go back to your tower."

The Headmaster's words drifted away as Lily quivered in excitement. Hogsmeade – in her first year! Her parents had taken her to the village once or twice, but she'd hardly remembered it. Now, with all the other students out there, it'd be so much different, so much more special. If nothing else, it made her classmates envious.

"What?!" Sara Garner shouted in the middle of Charms upon hearing Lily's news. Distracted, her Mending Charm fired off so poorly that the candlestick pieces she was supposed to be putting back together instead caught on fire."I _live_ in Hogsmeade and I'm not allowed to go there until the summer."

Lily wasn't going to argue. She happily trouped down to the Entrance Hall that Saturday morning as Professor Longbottom loitered at the bottom of the Grand Staircase, watching older students heading down the castle drive towards the village.

"Alright, Lily?" Professor Longbottom called to her as she trotted down to the ground floor. "It's about time we had a break. Too bad we couldn't see Hogsmeade when there was snow on the ground."

With or without snow, Hogsmeade was beautiful in Lily's eyes. The sun glowed bright against the dozens of brown wooden roofs running out in no particular pattern from High Street. The students, the locals, the sights and sounds and smells, all of it was such a delight that she almost passed out from amazement. She wanted to see everything all at once.

She didn't have that much time, however: As soon as she and Professor Longbottom reached High Street, he called out, "There we are! Harry, looking fit!"

Lily's father stepped up from behind a bright, garish shop on the corner of the street, a slight smile sliding across his face. "Bringing company, Neville?"

"Dad!' shouted Lily. She looked back at Professor Longbottom for a moment before racing forward, nearly stumbling on a loose cobblestone before leaping into her father's embrace.

"Gotcha," her father said, taking a step back to absorb the recoil from his daughter's impact. "Sticking around, Neville? Ron's in at the shop today. I'm gonna stop by."

"Told Hannah I'd meet her at the Hog's Head," Professor Longbottom said. "Just, uh, tell him hi for me. I'll come down sometime later, Harry."

Even if Lily was just following her father, Hogsmeade was wonderful. She left her worries and anxieties behind the moment they stepped into the town branch of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Her uncle George and Ron's shop was a veritable explosion of color, bright reds, greens, and yellows everywhere she looked. Virtual copies of Kaya's blue Pygmy Puff crowed in a cage near the door, while wand-like gags spat red and blue sparks from shelves near the back of the shop.

Lily wanted to touch everything.

"Look at us, mate," a loud voice boomed from the rear of the shop. Her uncle Ron sauntered out from between shelves of Screaming Yo-Yos – _Decibels for Days!_ "Having kids and being respectable people. What's gotten into us?"

Lily's father grinned and clapped him on the shoulder. "Who knows. Lily, don't touch everything you can see."

"Nah, she can shop free here. Especially if she's grabbing the Extendable Ears there, always useful. As long as you don't share with my stupid son," Ron called out to Lily as she watched a plastic representation of a chubby woman wheeling about the store on a unicycle.

"You'll learn what happens to troublemakers at my school!" shouted the toy woman, teetering to and fro on her unicycle and making a number of other students laugh.

Lily's father chuckled alongside them. "Ron, they don't even know who Umbridge is anymore. You thought about retiring those?"

"George says it's nostalgic. I kind of think so too. It's a good look for her, right? Lily, pay attention carefully. That woman once ran Hogwarts. Look how good you have it by comparison."

Oddly, her cries of, "Law is the highest ideal!" and "The Ministry is always right!" almost sounded like things Lily imagined Headmaster Maribor saying in his sleep.

Leaving the shop, they passed by a large, vacant building – _Honeydukes, closed for repair_ – before wading into a packed tavern situated square in the middle of High Street. Students poured in and out of the front doors of the Three Broomsticks, and Lily even spotted Professors Yaro and Teague exiting, both looking slightly drunk as they wandered out into the street. Inside, hazy windows let in dull sunlight across the wooden slats of the tavern's floor, with shadows thrown up here and there from the rickety chairs and tables standing about. Ron split to put in an order with the elderly barmaid, a gray-haired woman with lines running across her face who Lily imagined once had looked beautiful.

"So," Lily's father said as they plopped down into a booth beneath a large, dusty window. "Find anything new exploring lately?"

Lily blanched. Had her father asked her here to talk about _that?_ "Dad, I swear, I'm not doing anything, I'm being good – "

"Whoa, whoa!" her father stopped her, putting his hands up. "Lily, I'm _happy_ you're getting out and about. I'd be a bit disappointed if you weren't. Everyone gets in trouble at Hogwarts; Merlin knows your mum and I did all the time. What's this about?"

She should've expected this kind of response after her mother's letter, but Lily felt hot and looked down at the table. How was she supposed to tell her parents that she wasn't _trying_ to get in trouble and do stupid things, but that she had a propensity for walking right into the wrong situations at the wrong time? James has his popularity and stardom, Al his brains and the respect of all sorts of people. Lily just wanted to walk in the path they'd laid out for her. That didn't involve watching merman corpses wash up on the edge of the Black Lake, talking with lonely, bitter ghosts of suicidal girls, and taking leisurely cat-viewing strolls down in the lower dungeons.

Instead, Lily shrugged: "Nothing."

"That's not a very sure nothing," her father said, lowering his head to try and meet her eyes. "You were your usual perky self during the holidays. Is something wrong going on at school?"

Lily shook her head and glanced out the window. The way her father phrased it made it sound as if he expected some horrible plan to be unfolding within Hogwarts's halls. _Dad'd probably be best friends with Professor Vos._

Something pink and oblong wriggled just outside the window, and Lily squinted to get a glimpse of what was out there. Upon seeing nothing but the quagmire of students and locals going to and fro on the first nice weekend of the year, she leaned back in her seat as Uncle Ron waltzed up with three bottles of butterbeer in his hands.

"As sad a table as I've ever seen," Ron barked, clunking the bottles down and plopping down beside Lily's father. "Time to have a drink, unless I missed someone's funeral."

Lily was happy to let her father and uncle steer the conversation. Hearing about the goings-on outside of Hogwarts made her feel like the wizarding world wasn't limited to the walls of the castle and the grounds that ended at the boundary of the Forbidden Forest.

Whatever her father saw wrong at Hogwarts, however, Uncle Ron didn't share the same sentiments: "Come off it, mate," he said as he polished off his first butterbeer. "We accounted for what, all but two or three Death Eaters? No more of them, and you think something's going on at the castle? Yea, sure, coincidence."

"It's not that I have any evidence or whatnot," said Lily's father, "but between the sickness that broke out and eased so suddenly up at the castle, then the explosion at Honeydukes, right where the passage was…it's just a bit convenient. I got Kingsley to sign off of on investigating the area, and that's enough for me."

"Blimey, there's more interesting things to look at."

"Like what?'

"Like," said Ron, glancing Lily's way, "what's this about my son being best friends with Malfoy's kid? Is this real?'

 _Apparently, I'm not the only one in our family who isn't comfortable sharing everything_. "I guess," said Lily, trying to avoid eye contact.

"He was part of your exploratory crew down in the dungeons though, right? Your aunt wouldn't stop talking about that for two days."

 _Ugh_. "Well. Yeah."

"Augh," Ron groaned, pushing the empty bottle of butterbeer to his lips. "Bloody hell. Where did I go wrong? Malfoy…jinx him if you get the chance, Lily."

Her father looked for a moment as if he might say otherwise, but he added, "Subtly."

After a half-hour or so, Al found them. James joined soon after, and Lily figured her father hadn't just asked her to see him down in Hogsmeade.

"What's up?" said James as he arrived, pushing Al over against Lily to make room.

Their father shook his head, shoved fresh butterbeers at them all, and said, "Just wanted to talk. I'm in town looking at Auror stuff. The way I hear it is that this is your only Hogsmeade trip of the year, so of course I was getting it in. What's new at the castle?"

Something flickered outside the window again. Lily swore to herself that she wasn't seeing things, but James drew her attention away: "Gryffindor kicking everyone's butts at Quidditch, and that's about all. Nothing new. Revising for OWLs is a pain."

"Ah, horrible times," Ron said, tossing back his third butterbeer. "You're doing Care of Magical Creatures, right?"

"Yeah, Hagrid drew me in."

"Oh, blimey. Horrible class. Got to flobberworms, yet?"

"Hang on," Lily's father said. "Just because the material was bad doesn't mean it was all bad. Hagrid's a great teacher."

Ron glanced his way, made a face, and threw back his bottle. "Er, right. OWLs and whatnot. Bloody ridiculous.

"I did want to pass on something to you all," Lily's father cut in, changing the subject. "Mr. Fawcett's doing a lot better - St. Mungo's says he's almost fit to go home. Whatever happened originally has died down, and then that second incident he had, when he went a little crazy and started attacking people - that's waned as well. It just got my thinking, and I wanted to ask you all - is anything funny going on up at school recently? Anything out of the ordinary?"

James shot a look Lily's way as Ron groaned, "Oh, come off it, mate. This is probably more of a normal year than any of the years we had at Hogwarts."

"What's goin' on?" James cut in before either their father or Ron could say anything more. "Some kind of investigation?"

"That's why I'm here, pretty much," said their father. He paused, pulled out his wand, aimed it out the rest of the tavern, and muttered something under his breath that Lily thought started with an M. "Did you hear something? I'm not trying to frighten any of you, but with everything that's happened at school this year, I want to keep my office on point. If we could get any…well, help…"

Another groan of frustration from Ron accompanied James's saying, "No, but…where should we start looking for that kind of thing?"

Lily kept her mouth shut. _Looking for that kind of thing_ sounded like just the right way to go about getting in even more trouble, not to mention drawing Headmaster Maribor's ire. Al shared her concerns: "I don't know if we're best looking for anything, James…"

"Come on, bro, lighten up a bit. You're so stuck up."

Uncle Ron grimaced. "Harry, honestly mate, I really don't think anything too crazy's going on at the castle. Bad fortune, yeah, but come on, even Hermione says it's all just going to pass."

"You said the same thing sixth year, and Malfoy was up to plenty," their father retorted.

"Malfoy?" Lily cut in. "Like, Scorpius? Was his dad – "

Al looked shocked. "Lily, don't tell me you're friends with – "

"Hold on, hold on," their father said, cutting them all off. "Forget about Malfoy. Scorpius Malfoy is fine. His father's…well, not a great man, but not guilty of anything. Look, James, Al, Lily, I just want you all to be careful up at school for the rest of the term, alright? If you see anything…"

"Where do you want us to look?" James interrupted, eager.

Their father frowned at him. "I don't want you to look. That's what I'm doing. I don't want any of you to run into trouble on my behalf. It's just that if anything seems out of the ordinary, _anything_ , send me an owl. I'm going to be here in Hogsmeade for a while this term, and I want to know everything that's going on up at the castle. It just doesn't feel right."

James looked fit to bursting. "Yeah, sure. Is there anything we can do right now? Checking out stuff and whatnot? I mean, Lily's good at this by now and all – "

"James! I'm not!"

"No," their father interrupted her. "Listen, I'll write you if I need anything from you, okay? And I might. But until then, go about normally at school. Have fun. Do good. Just keep your eyes open for anything strange. I want to know about it if something does happen."

Lily swallowed her thoughts. She'd seen enough strange for one year already. What more could possibly hit Hogwarts through the rest of the term?How


	20. Challenging the Spirit

_**\+ Thanks to luluguineapig, Psych0Geek, and gracefish21 for the reviews of last chapter, and for the new people who followed/faved! Good points all around from reviewers – things are going to end up a lot clearer as we approach the end stretch of the first book here. Writing episodic, chapter-by-chapter content often means that the little hints don't look like much beforehand, but suffice to say, payoff is coming soon! In this chapter, Lily uses her brain for once and we learn more about the past a certain teacher is running from.**_

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The weather warmed as February gave way to March and winter drew down. The snow packed up for the year, rainy, blustery winds replaced the icy gusts of the early year, and bit by bit the Black Lake's shell of ice melted away. From the view within Ravenclaw Tower, the Forbidden Forest was as lifeless as ever, however.

Lily stole a glance at the forest edge as she trudged down to the greenhouses for her final detention with Professor Longbottom. Tiny buds popped up on the barren branches of the trees, but not a living thing stirred in the woods. She hadn't spoken to Grace once since their last meeting, nor even tried to contact the ghost. Thoughts like gnats nipped at her thoughts when she considered tromping back down to the edge of the lake to have a chat. _Dad's concerned about things happening._ Rather than calm her, the relative calm of the year's second term more and more made Lily jumpy that something was on the verge of shattering her peace.

As if on cue, rather than Professor Longbottom greeting her for their final night together, she ran straight into Scorpius Malfoy. The boy barely looked up as he rubbed down a tire-sized pot with a ragged brown cloth.

"What're you doing?" Lily said, stopping on a dime a foot into the greenhouse.

Scorpius scowled at her and tossed a pair of gloves onto a nearby table. "Detention, obviously. Hurry up and do your half of the work."

"Your detention's with Vos. The Headmaster said that."

"Yeah, so I'm here," said Scorpius, throwing his thumb over his shoulder at the ajar door to Professor Longbottom's storage and supply room. Baritone laughter rumbled out from the door, along with the clink of glass.

Lily barged past him and pushed into the room only to see Professors Vos, Longbottom, and Yaro sitting around a squat table in the cramped room, a translucent red bottle on the tabletop and three glasses in various states of emptiness before them. Bronze knuts littered the table, scattered indiscriminately about two dozen or so playing cards. Red, yellow, green, and blue symbols on the cards glittered in the dull orange light from a half-dozen enchanted candles stacked about the supply shelves, shoved here and there between bottles of fertilizer and wooden crates.

Yaro hiccupped and said before noticing Lily was watching, "We get paid more than that, Neville. Don't be a wanker. Jurre's hand is shite anyway."

An ornately dressed, old woman from one of the cards yelled at him, "The only shite thing here is your visage, whelp! If I still ruled Pommerania…"

"Oh, Lily!" Neville said, starting in his seat after noticing her standing in the doorway. "Go ask Scorpius what to do. He's doing the same thing. Just cleaning."

"We could have them play for the night off," Yaro suggested, downing his drink, aiming his wand at his glass, and refilling it. "So it'd be me, Neville, and one of them here."

Vos snorted and tossed a handful of knuts on the table. "I'm warmin' up, you poes. Go clean plants, Lily. This is going to be too bloody for a first-year to watch."

While watching three of her teachers drink themselves under a supply room table while gambling away a month's pay sounded like a decent change-of-pace, Lily skirted out of the way and hurried back to Scorpius and a veritable mountain of planters covered in dirt, goo, and spots of blood here and there. She did her best to ignore Scorpius throughout the cleaning, but her frustration built as he pushed off more and more of the ultra-dirty pots onto her, up to one clay planter that was half-filled with what looked like snot.

"You're cleaning all the easy ones," she complained, glancing at his stack of pots dusted with light soil glazes. "You do this one."

He smirked. "Nah. Have fun."

"We're both doing detention, not just me. You do this one."

"It's really your fault we're here, so no, go ahead. I'll let you have that one."

"It's _my_ fault?"

"You got caught, so yeah."

"We were looking for your cat! I didn't have to help."

"He didn't get in trouble. If you didn't spend so much time deflecting and whining you might get something done. Look, your stack of pots is huge. I'm almost done. You're gonna be here all night."

 _Probably because you've been adding to it when I'm not looking. Screw this kid_. Again, Lily found herself baffled at how Hugo was friends with Scorpius. Maybe he wasn't the dumbest kid in the year as Calla had said, but he sure was most infuriating.

An hour later, Scorpius had finished his pile while Lily's looked just as large as it always had been, as if the pots were mating and replacing everything she cleaned. "I'm out," he said, raising his eyebrows at the work still in front of Lily. "Looks like I finished all my work."

"You can't just leave until Professor Vos tells you," Lily growled at him, jamming a rag into the bottom of a pot covered in what looked like redfletcher pus. "At least help me with this."

"Forget it. Better get going."

He hightailed it out of the greenhouses before Lily could protest further. _Fine. I'll just tell the professors and get him in trouble_. By the time Professor Yaro wandered out of the supply room with a vicious frown on his face, however, another half hour had passed, and he didn't so much as acknowledge Lily as he stormed out. _I guess the poker game didn't go so well_.

"That's February _and_ March's pay, don't forget, Linas," Vos called out, stumbling after him and bracing himself on a table. He looked up at Lily, laughed, and said, "Ah. There you are. Class tonight's gonna be a blast, man. I tripled my salary for the month."

 _Chances of sobriety by the time midnight rolls around? Low._ "Scorpius left a while ago."

"Yeah, who cares," Vos said, waving away her concern. "Detention's done tonight anyway. You know this is only the second time I've gotten people to play cards since I came to Britain? You Brits just love to act all above a little gambling."

Whether Vos meant to be offensive or not, Lily found the conversation far more entertaining than cleaning out pots in silence. "When was the first time?" Lily asked, trying to look innocent as she emptied pale, creamy goop from a shallow pan.

"Ah. 'Bout a month after I arrived from Germany, 'bout a month before I split up with Alanis. It was in Surrey. Lost a bundle."

 _Alanis_. Lily had heard that name before. How she remembered it she didn't know, but back on Christmas at her grandparents' place, she remembered her aunt Hermione and uncle Percy talking – _Half the rumors we hear about Alanis Fell in our department…_

"Were you two married or something, Professor?" Lily asked, focusing on her pan.

"Fook. If we're going to have story time…" Vos said, letting his words trail off. He wandered back into the supply shed, emerging with a now-full bottle and taking a swig. "Neville's absolutely gone. But…oh yea, Alanis Fell. Fookin' harpy. Whore. Nah, we weren't married. Just fell out after we left Germany."

Lily swallowed her recognition of the name as Vos went on, only half-aware that Lily was listening at all, rambling between swigs of liquor: "I mean, yeah, we liked each other and all, but we're running away from the shite on the continent, people want to kill us, that's not something we're gonna weather before we end up hating each other. When you start lovin' you'll find out who it goes."

"What happened?" Lily asked, trying her best to sound half-interested.

Vos hesitated, glanced down at the bottle, shook the contents, and said, "Back when I was working for the German ministry, Alanis, a guy named Sion Redgrave, and I were all mentoring under the same tutor. Sion was a major headcase, Alanis was fresh off her entire family getting nuked by Death Eaters here in Britain, and I was just out of fighting wars in Ethiopia and Sierra Leone with a private company and trying to take a stab at getting back into the magical world. Here in Britain your ministry's all tight on things like regulating magic, underage wizards, yadda yadda. Not so in Germany. We were three screwed-up people who had almost free reign to dive into all sorts of cutting-edge magic under our mentor, and we got real deep into some stuff we probably shouldn't have. Exploring old ruins, diving into magic that probably should've been forgotten, all sorts of bat shite."

"You know how this goes. Damn, we did a decent impression of all the stories you hear about Albus Dumbledore and Grindelwald. Years down the road and Alanis and I were falling for each other. We were two dumb idealists, but we were in so deep over our heads in some unethical stuff that when our mentor pushed us into something even we couldn't agree to, we tried to fight him. Sion was real defensive of him – think he thought of him as sort of a father figure, I dunno – and we got in a nasty skirmish. Alanis and I weren't as good as we thought. Then we're on the run, then we end up here in Britain. Lot more to the story, but it's tedious shite."

From the way Vos was wobbling against the table, Lily had a feeling that the night's Astronomy class wasn't going to be happening at all. "What was the fight like?"

"Short and ugly. Sion shot a curse at me that would've decapitated me if it hadn't missed by an inch. Guy was always a much better fighter than Alanis and me. Clever fooker, too. He's the kind of man who holds grudges, never forgets a slight, and…ah, fook it. Forget it. Shite story anyway."

Lily glanced at him. Vos scowled at the ground, as if he could smite his demons with one look, swinging the half-full bottle back and forth. In an instant, her view on her teacher changed: Maybe Vos wasn't so much a man trying to teach and make a name for himself, but someone running from his past and looking to start over. Hard to do much better than Hogwarts for that. If he had rivals out there in the world, they'd have a tough time –

Her stomach lurched. She glanced out of the greenhouse towards the forest, thoughts racing through her head, none of them good. "Er, Professor…can I ask something?"

"You've already started, might as well go on."

"The magical defenses around the castle…do they protect against all dark magic? Or just some?"

Vos frowned and waggled the bottle back and forth. "I mean, you can't protect against _all_ kinds of dark magic. But most, yeah. Headmaster's a real stickler for security."

"How about, like…beasts? Or ghosts?"

"Depends on the beast. Larger and more hostile ones, yeah. No dragons or chimeras getting in here. A ghost? Psh. No. You see Nearly-Headless Nick or any of the others have problems getting in and out of the castle? A wraith or revenant, maybe. That's the kinda thing the Headmaster and I were worried might be lurking down in the lower dungeons."

Lily bit her lip.

Astronomy ended up cancelled unsurprisingly, but Lily ended up blowing most of her weekend in the library. Apart from homework, she wanted to find more books besides _Hogwarts: A History_ that could answer questions running around her mind.

"The Restricted Section's not for boredom!" the librarian, a young, gaunt, golden-haired woman named Madame Ambrose, snarled at Lily as she attempted to cross the rope separating the darker sections of the library from the main bookshelves and rows. "Not unless you have a note. Really, use your head. I'm not losing my job when your mum and dad cry after you've been traumatized reading something you shouldn't have."

 _Fine_. Come Monday morning, Lily waited after class in Defense Against the Dark Arts. The Fat Friar complained to Professor Morrigan at her desk after the first-year Ravenclaws had spent the lesson practicing _lumos solem,_ an up-gunned variation of the wand-lighting charm that could not only produce a powerful beam of light and warmth, but also repel hostile ghosts and other spirits. Unfortunately for the Friar, he'd been Morrigan's unwitting test subject.

"…really could have told me beforehand," he complained as Morrigan scribbled on a piece of parchment, doing her best to ignore his complains. "Not like I'm, _hurt_ or anything, but it's a common courtesy – "

"You're not a revenant, you're not destroyed by it. I don't see what the problem is," Morrigan noted. Spotting Lily and looking grateful for the opportunity to put the Friar aside, she perked up and said, "Anything you want to ask, Ms. Potter?"

The Fat Friar _harrumphed_ and shot out of the classroom as Lily pushed a note onto Morrigan's desk. "I just want to get these two books out of the Restricted Section, Professor. Since we're studying on ghosts and spirits, I thought they'd help."

" _Secrets of the High Castle_ and _Magicke Moste Evile_. Lily, these aren't things that are going to help with our lesson," Professor Morrigan said, looking skeptical. "What on Earth are you looking for?"

Cursing herself for not coming up with a better excuse, Lily waved and said, "I, um…I just wanted to know something about ghosts and all."

"What about? You don't have to go looking in books like these."

"If a ghost is…are ghosts restricted to certain areas? Not the ones here, but…I mean, are there times when a spirit can't leave a place because of some sort of connection? Maybe a building or…or a forest?"

Morrigan fretted: "It's not unheard of. If something especially traumatic happens, maybe, but it's not often, and they're much less like the Fat Friar and the Grey Lady and much more inhuman and beastly. Not somebody you'd recognize, at least. What is this about?"

Lily's mind muddled. "I just wanted to know, Professor. I should go. Thanks!"

While she didn't have definitive evidence, Professor Vos and Morrigan's opinions, along with her studying in the library throughout the week, was enough to prompt Lily at last to summon her courage and trot down to the lakeside the next Sunday. Her spirits bolstered by the previous day's Quidditch match – Gryffindor had blown the tar out of Hufflepuff, avenging Ravenclaw's loss to them earlier – she sucked in her gut and prepared for a chat with someone she had started to think wasn't being entirely truthful.

Ten minutes passed on the edge of the Forbidden Forest as Lily tossed stones into the Black Lake. Twenty. Thirty – and then she saw a familiar glow flitting out of the forest, coming her way.

"Finally," Grace said, perching on a low branch and appraising Lily with large eyes. "I thought you were mad at me. It's been a long time since you came down again."

Lily's stomach heaved. She didn't know how to approach something like this. "I – no. I'm not mad."

"Well, good. I thought you were forgetting about me. Are you fitting in more at the castle? Is everyone treating you alright?"

 _This_. _This_ was what made it so hard, everything Grace said that made Lily think the ghost cared about her and how she did. She didn't know how to challenge a friend.

She started down at her feet, clenched her hands, backed up a step, and murmured, "I just wanted to ask you something."

"Well, what? You can ask me anything, Lily. I trust you."

"That's the thing. I don't think you're being very truthful with me."

The effect was instant. Grace soared off her perch, grinning wryly at Lily and saying with a much higher-pitched voice, "What do you mean, truthful? Lily, I've told you my story. I saw you see the dead merman at the lake's edge. And you can ask around about the dead centaur, the whole tribe even."

"No, I was just talking with two of my teachers – "

"Well, if you're asking them about _me_ , I think I'd know a lot more. I'm the one who lives here, after all. They don't try and talk to me. Only you. That's why I like you, Lily. You have a good heart. You're the one who can help me."

Lily gritted her teeth. Grace was cutting her off at every path, killing her with sweetness. "No, it's…you want me to go into the forest when everything bad is happening, and you say you don't talk to anyone else, and that's all what makes it weird! And I don't think if you're just a ghost of a student that you can't pass through Hogwarts's barrier!"

Grace gave a light little scoff and said, "Lily, what do you want? Do you want me to destroy myself against the shield? Kill myself again? Do you go about thinking that if I did it once I'm alright with it? I'm already dead, that's it, right? Like you can just use me? Oh, this girl's had so much pain, she can take a little more, is that it?"

"It's not –"

"I've been here the whole time for you. When you were alone and everyone shunned you. I listened to you. I helped you. I trusted you with my secrets. Why can't you help me? This isn't a friendship if I'm the only one putting anything into it."

"I don't believe you, I don't believe what you told me!" Lily blurted out. "I talked to my teachers, I read up on the castle's history, and I can't find anything about anyone who killed themselves eighty years ago! And I don't believe someone who spent so much time in the castle can't come back!"

Grace recoiled. For a moment they squared off across that lone meter spanning the edge of the forest, Lily feeling as if she wanted to crumble, Grace looking murderous. "So what, Lily, I'm just in your imagination? You're dreaming me?"

"No! I think you're a revenant, or a spirit of a dark witch who died, or – "

"Oh, is that all? So I'm the ghost of Lord Voldemort or something? So everything I told you is shite?"

"N – "

"You're just like them!" Grace snarled. She didn't look so beautiful anymore: Her gown had hiked up against her knees, and her face contorted. "You used me, Lily! I should've known it! You found friends in Hogwarts, stopped being lonely, and the moment you had that, you were too good for me! Then it's poor Grace, stupid ghost, leave her in the forest, why should I help her? And you go and throw these accusations on me to feel better about it! Like you can justify being a bully, just like everyone who sent me to this fate!"

Lily stepped back, fighting back tears. She hadn't intended for this. She'd wanted a calm conversation, an explanation of everything that had gone on. Really, she'd wanted Grace to assuage her fears. Instead, the ghost had ripped her to shreds.

Grace scowled at her and backed up into the tree line. "Fine! Fine! Doom me to this place! Throw away everything I've helped you with! You're a horrible person, Lily. You're disgusting."

"I don't want you to go! I just want to know everything that happened! Please!"

"No, you don't. You're preying on me. I won't let you. Go back to the castle and whoever is so much better than me. Go on. You obviously have so many better things to do than picking on the dead girl. God, how your father can even stand you after what I saw him do in these very woods twenty years ago. You're nothing like him."

With that, Grace whirled around and flew into the forest without a look back. Lily sat down on a rock, pulled her legs up to her chest, and burrowed her face in her knees, wondering whether she'd done the right thing or if Grace was right about her.


	21. Return of the Dark

_**Thanks for the review, Mermaid1108! More people to feel sorry for in this chapter, haha. Finally, Lily starts taking action.  
**_

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Lily was shocked how fast two months could pass at Hogwarts when all was quiet. Despite her fallout with Grace, classes rolled on, gossip ran, and temperatures climbed back into tolerable levels outside as greenery cloaked the Forbidden Forest and birds returned to the tree tops. Lily's birthday came and went with the calm of late April. Turning twelve felt like climbing over a particularly treacherous hill: The turbulence of the past six months slid away as Lily looked in the mirror. She was growing taller bit by bit, leaving behind the little girl she'd been and building into the teenager she was only a year away from becoming.

Come May, cracks broke in Hogwarts's peace.

The Great Hall was ablaze with huddled conversation and antsy faces as Lily and the other first-year Ravenclaws entered for lunch after a spirited Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Lily bumped into Albus on his way out, his expression concerned: "What's going on?"

Her brother hesitated before answering: "This fourth-year Slytherin, Kenny Blum…well, he, uh, attacked some people in the fifth-floor loo."

"He attacked people? Like out of the blue?"

"I only heard a bit. Someone said he was complaining about something hurting the whole day, then he was with a bunch of others in the toilet and just pulled his wand on them. Started swinging around all crazy-like and shot spells everywhere."

Lily clenched her hands. "Did he…did he curse them or something?"

"No, not like…no," said Al, hurrying to allay any of Lily's imaginations about a fourth-year blasting Killing Curses in the halls. "Just stupid stuff. Hit a guy with a bat-bogey hex. But it was weird, they say Kenny was acting like he was seeing stuff that wasn't there and all."

Al fretted. "I feel bad for the guy, really. Friend of mine said he was one of the ones who got sick back in November. Must've really just messed him up."

Lily shot a glance over her shoulder. "There's nobody else, right? It's not happening any more than him?"

"No, no," Al added hastily, recognizing his mistake and putting his hands on his sister's shoulders. "Hey, look. It's just one person falling a little ill. It's just something freakish. That's all. Forget about it. Go eat."

Once Lily'd heard the news, however, forgetting about it was the one thing she couldn't do. She envisioned a horrible end of term full of lengthy, isolated hospital stays, of people dropping like flies again, of no answers to too many questions and all the other fears she thought she'd overcome from the past year. _Mr. Fawcett attacked people, too. I don't think you're right, Al._

That anxiety only worsened when Natalie woke up the next day complaining of a headache.

"Nat, just skip class. It's just Transfiguration. Yaro's not going to care," Lily said, holding Natalie's arm as her friend grimaced and clutched her forehead. "I'll give you my notes."

Natalie shook her off. "I'm fine."

"At least go to the hospital wing or something. You can get out of class that way."

"Lily, I'm not skipping class. And I'm fine. Leave it."

Wayne rounded the hallway and joined up with them as they turned into a less crowded corridor. "We all skiving off class? Excellent idea. Nat, you look horrible."

Natalie glared at him, squeezed her eyes, and sat down on a stone ledge before a window overlooking the Middle Courtyard. Bright white afternoon sun lit up her blonde hair so that it speckled with an almost golden glow, a far cry from the pale, ashen color her skin had taken. She bent low over her knees and placed her face in her hands as her bookbag fell to the floor with a loud _clump_.

"Nat, let's go to the hospital wing, alright? I'll go with you," Lily urged her again. Only a shake of her friend's head answered her.

Wayne looked uneasy. "Okay, a little less excellent. I'm gonna get Healer Justman," he said, taking a half step away from the two girls.

Lily shot him a panicked expression that screamed, _please don't leave me!_ The hall had emptied apart from them, and as much as Lily cared for her friend, this development made her skin crawl. Wayne drew back again as Lily reached out to Natalie, but just as she did, the other girl swatted her hand away. "Leave it!"

"Leave what?"

Natalie said nothing. The three were quiet for a moment as she clutched her forehead, murmuring things under her breath as Wayne and Lily traded frightened glances. Suddenly she began waving her right arm in frantic circles in front of her, her eyes clenched, her hands balled into fists so tight her palms bleached.

"Just shut up. Leave me alone! I don't want to anymore!" she cried.

Lily felt her throat tighten. "Nat, please! Just come with us to the hospital wing, alright?"

"I'm getting the Healer, screw this," Wayne said.

He didn't get one step before Natalie pulled her wand. Lily gasped and darted back as her friend shouted " _Incendio!_ " and fired a lick of flame out in front of her. Wayne pulled her into an alcove across the way as the fire splashed against the brown stone bricks of the wall. Lily shook as she grabbed his arm for dear life, too frightened to look out and risk Natalie shooting another spell at her.

"Maybe we should get the Healer now," she whispered.

Wayne peeked around the corner and ducked back as another _Incendio_ charbroiled the stone. "I think we're a little late for that."

Natalie growled to demons only she could see outside, occasionally tossing a spell this way or that. Lily heard her pound on something – the wall? Her head? – now and then, crying in pain or insanity or god-knew-what. It _was_ following in Mr. Fawcett's footsteps, the same pattern – the first attack, then later, the same crazed lashing out.

Suddenly, that thought gave her an idea. She'd seen Vos calm Natalie with a spell back in November. Perhaps…

"Move," she said, summoning her courage and pushing Wayne behind her.

"No, Lily, she's – "

She ignored him. Pulling her wand, Lily clenched her teeth, poked her head and her left hand out from behind cover, and shouted, " _Stupefy!"_

Limp red sparks dribbled out of the end of her wand. "What was that? Are you trying to make her laugh to death?" groaned Wayne, pulling Lily into the alcove again. "Look, I'll – "

" _Stupefy!"_ Lily shouted again after wriggling around Wayne and aiming outside the alcove. Again, her wand did little but produce a blob of red light that dissipated six inches from her wand tip. Natalie, unaware what she was doing at all by this point, shot a jet of white light into the alcove that made Lily grimace and close her eyes in pain. Little black dots danced around her vision.

"Y'know, I kinda wish they'd have waited to teach us this stuff until next year," Wayne bemoaned.

Footsteps clattered in the hall outside. Lily heard Natalie turn, and then a gruff voice shouted, " _Petrificus Totalus!_ "

Natalie went rigid, her eyes staring statue-like into dead space, her wand half-raised and aimed at a grate in the floor. From down the hall, Professor Vos waved his wand upward across his body and suspended her in the air like a ragdoll.

"Professor!" Lily cried, leaping out of the alcove. Even after being attacked, she didn't want to see her friend hurt.

Vos held up his hand as he dangled Natalie in the air. He inched forward, his wand still holding her in place as he squinted at his student. Upon getting close, he squinted at her, took a step back with his mouth slightly ajar, and swallowed hard. With a small swipe from his wand, a white blink of light flashed in front of Natalie's face. She collapsed to the ground, unconscious, her face still and stony.

"Jesus," Wayne breathed, following Lily out of the alcove, his own wand still drawn. "What happened to her?"

Vos didn't answer him. He crouched low next to Natalie, prying open one eyelid with his finger and staring into the whites of her eyes. He placed his hand against her neck as if feeling for something that Lily couldn't see, something that only he knew, and with each new action, his face paled and his frown grew deeper.

"Is she going to be alright?" Lily whispered after a long silence between the three of them.

Again, Vos didn't answer. He picked up Natalie with one arm around her waist and headed off down the hall without a word. When he reached the end he stopped, turned, and at last said, "Get out of here, you two."

"But – "

"Now."

With that, he and Natalie were gone.

So it began. Headmaster Maribor announced another lockdown an hour after Natalie attacked Lily and Wayne – no going outside of the castle, staff members patrolling the halls, no being out of the common rooms after sundown, and, much to the dismay of James, Rose, and Roxanne, the premature conclusion to the Quidditch season. Rumors spread like wildfire in Hogwarts's halls. Here a Hufflepuff bashing his head into the fountains in the first-floor toilet, there a Gryffindor spirited away by Professor Longbottom after he complained of sharp, stabbing pains in both his temples, only to be quarantined in the hospital ward. The only thing linking them together: All of them had fallen ill during the first outbreak.

Lily tried visiting Natalie the day after her attack, only to find out that, again, visitations were prohibited.

"Why can't I see her? She's not going to shoot me!" she complained to Healer Justman in the hospital wing.

He scoffed, "Headmaster's orders! Thought you'd be happy. You're not in here again. Until we get a clue on how to fix things, no one in, no one out."

Healers from St. Mungo's returned again. Once more, anyone from the outside was barred from stepping foot into Hogwarts, meaning that Lily didn't have the slightest hope of talking to her father about this. More than anything, she wanted him: She wanted the reassurance that things would be okay, that he and the other Aurors had found something out, his arms around her, secure, safe.

Instead, silence. Owls alone brought signs of life from the outside world.

"I'm just mad," Logan complained at breakfast as May rolled on to a somber beat. "This keeps happening and we can't do anything about it. We're all just waiting to be knocked out."

Wayne snorted in a vain attempt to allay his concerns. "C'mon, mate. It's only been people who got sick the first time. Besides, what're we supposed to do? Go investigating for something we don't know nothing about?"

"Somethin'. I don't even care. I hate this."

"Thought you and Nat didn't even get along all that well."

Logan stewed over his breakfast. "Yeah…eh, she doesn't deserve to be locked up in the hospital all the time. The hell with it."

Lily agreed. More than ever she felt powerless, a helpless buoy tossed this way and that by violent tides. She wanted to do something, _anything_ , to get rid of the darkness that had plagued her first term and reared its ugly head again. She just didn't know how.

The tawny owl that swooped in bearing the seal of the Ministry on its leg, however, told her just what path to follow. It dove low over the Ravenclaw table, dropping off a crisp, bulging letter in front of her, and took off without a moment's hesitation. Lily tore it open in a hurry, releasing a small, glowing, furry black orb onto the table. It rolled to a stop against her dinner plate, and before anyone could see, she tucked it into the pocket of her robes. Confused, Lily opened the letter that came with it.

 _Lily,_

 _I've heard everything that's going on. The other Aurors and I are looking into it as much as we can, but your Headmaster's shut off everyone from Hogwarts until this new outbreak slows down. I can't come to get you or investigate, and since I can't do what I need to, I have to ask something of you. I told you in Hogsmeade I'd write if I needed something, and I need something now._

 _There's someone prowling about in the castle. Someone who shouldn't be, someone who's planning something evil inside Hogwarts. I know it. You're smart, sweetie, and I think you know it, too. What I do know is that only owls are getting in from the outside, and that means if whoever's hurting Hogwarts from the inside is getting owl post, or messages from anyone on the outside collaborating with them, it's originating from the Owlery._

 _I don't want to involve you, Lily, but you're less suspicious than either Al or James. You're a first-year. You're making your own path, and I'm so proud of you for what you've done – and because of that, I have to ask this of you. I sent something with this package. It's a snooping device of sorts, a magical ball that will tell me and the other Aurors if a Dark object comes in and let us tell your Headmaster at once. I don't want to risk someone intercepting this, so I'm sending it to you. The Headmaster, the staff, they're too obvious, and I know I can trust you._

 _As soon as you have the time, place the ball in the highest rafter in the Owlery. That's all I need. That's all I'll ask from you. I won't put you in danger. I'm just asking for your help in a place where I and the other Aurors can't reach._

 _Mum sends her love. You've done so well, sweetie. Stay strong. We'll get to the bottom of this._

 _-Dad_

Her father's handwriting scrawled out in jagged lines here and there, as if he'd struggled writing the letter, fighting his conscious over giving his youngest child and only daughter a mission during such upheaval. Lily didn't care. She reached down into her pocket, wrapping her fingers around the furry ball and closing her eyes.

 _You can count on me, Dad_.


	22. The Intruders

_**Thanks for the great reviews, Mermaid1108, mywildcharmsforyou, and Psych0Geek! Good catch on the spell, Psych0 – note to myself to use less reliance on Goblet of Fire for references (Impedimenta vs. Skrewts vs a smaller being in a human in the Dept of Ministries, but hey.) Adjusted the last chapter accordingly. Now on to the part where all the little things that made no sense or did nothing to advance either the plot or characterization finally start to play out.**_

 _ **Also, good theory Mermaid ;) Also, props to a guest reviewer from way back in Chapter 9 for nailing something in this chapter. Yo.**_

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That Saturday morning, Lily woke up before the first rays of sun crept over the highland hills to the east. A flat blue sheet covered the sky, and only the earliest of waking birds twittered to the coming dawn. The girls' dormitory was quiet. Lily glanced over to the bed next to her – empty, its drapes bunched up to the wall, the covers flat and unmolested, that old, ragged, stuffed rabbit lonely and longing for its owner from its pillow-top perch.

Lily shivered. Her chest felt hollow, like someone had scraped out a warm, living hunk with an ice cream scoop and left behind a void somewhere around her lungs and heart. _Whatever you're doing Dad, just make this all stop._

She frowned as she pulled on an old pair of trousers from her trunk bottom. Almost an entire year had gone by and she'd never taken out that stupid dungbomb her uncle George had given her. What was she supposed to use it for, anyway? She'd only worn these dirty trousers on the weekends blanketed by bad conditions inside and outside the castle, and still she'd left the stupid prank in that same back pocket. It did give her an idea, though: In the rare case someone else was up and heading the Owlery at this hour, the dungbomb would be a good distraction. Lily could only imagine the stupid questions that would come if someone saw her planting her father's snooper in the rafters – _What are you doing? You're in big trouble, miss!_

Maybe George was on to something.

Grabbing her wand and the fuzzy orb, Lily slunk out of the bedroom and down to the commons without sound. She'd written a letter to her parents as well – a letter she fully intended not to send, but only to hand to someone snooping around in the event she stumbled into them. Thinking herself clever for the ruse, Lily marched straight down into the common room only to find it wasn't empty at this early hour.

Logan looked up from in front of the fireplace as she arrived. He clutched a length of parchment in one hand, a quill in his other, and purplish bags weighed on his eyes. His black hair stuck out in odd directions. "What're you doing up?" he asked as Lily stopped dead at Rowena Ravenclaw's statue before the passage to the dormitories.

"Sending a letter," she said instantly, waving her fake message in her hand. "Are you doing homework?"

He shrugged and held up his own parchment. "Gonna send this to my parents. All the stuff that's going on and they're…well, yeah."

Lily sympathized, but she had things to do, things Logan didn't need to know about. Chatting could come later. "Great. Well, see you. I'm just gonna go."

"You going to the Owlery now?" he said. Lily gaped, and before she could dissuade him, he stood up from his chair, brushed off his trousers, and added, "I'll come too. I can't really add anything else to this anyway."

"I was…I was gonna…"

Lily stammered as Logan pushed open the door to the tower staircase, waking up the eagle statue that sounded particularly irate: "You think I want to ask you something now, scamp? I'm closed for business until sunup. Fine, here's a riddle: What happens to the student when I start shouting about kids in the corridor before dawn?"

Blanching, Lily hurried after him. Horrible luck: _Why does he have to do this now?_ She didn't want to wait until later when the chances others would see her up to things would jump, and putting this off any longer might make things harder for the Aurors, whatever they were up to. _It would've helped if Dad had told me more._

"You really don't have to come with me this early," Lily said as they tromped down the corridor, attempting to salvage the situation. "I mean, it's…it's early."

"You're up."

"Well, yea. I mean, I'm sending this to my parents. My dad gets up early for work."

Logan looked at her with an incredulous expression. "Dunno what that means. So do my parents."

 _Not going according to plan._ "What d'your parents do?"

"Dad's a liaison with Gringotts. Mum's on the Wizengamot," Logan murmured. "My mum knew your dad here at school."

"Really?"

"Yeah. She was a Hufflepuff, same year. She doesn't really talk about it much. Or any of that stuff back then. Since – " he paused mid-sentence, glancing Lily's way for a moment before pursing his lips, shoving his letter into the pocket of his sweater, and muttering, "But yeah."

 _Whatever that means_. If Logan wanted to hide something, well, shoot, Lily could hide her business as well.

The first red blotches of dawn stretched across the sky as Lily and Logan stepped into the Owlery. A hundred hoots greeted them from all corners of the conical tower, a thick layer of droppings, rodent bones, straw, and other detritus crunching underfoot. Stone steps climbed around the perimeter of the building, watched over by owls of every color and type – brown and average tawny owls, white-faced barn owls, aggressive-looking eagle owls, and a lone smallish, orange-red owl with a white face that hissed and screeched at Lily when she reached out to pet it.

"Don't think he likes you," Logan said, trying to draw a sleepy long-eared owl out from an alcove as it resisted.

Sensing her chance, Lily climbed up to the stairs towards the top of the tower. The owls thinned out up here, with only a few larger ones dotting the mostly-empty alcoves. The wind was colder and stronger, and she clutched her arms to her chest as she looked for the best place to put the black, fuzzy orb. _Highest rafters…_

 _There_ : A pair of wooden beams crossed over at the top of the tower, coming together at a recessed midpoint that Lily figured would be a perfect hiding spot. She glanced down at Logan still fighting with his owl, sucked her breath, and climbed up on top of one of the beams. Pulling the orb out of her pocket, she braced herself with one arm and set it down with the other. As soon as she'd deposited it, little legs popped out of the sides and it began humming, louder than she would've expected for what ostensibly was a spying device.

"What're you doing?" Logan called up from the ground floor.

She nearly fell off the beam. "Nothing. Just – er, trying to get an owl."

"Lily, I'll get it. That's a long way down."

"I'm fine, Logan. You sound like a teacher."

He wasn't wrong though – it was a long drop from the beam to the tower ground, and Lily inched her way back along the beam, tiny bit by tiny bit. When she reached the stone steps again, however, she stood up only to find Logan standing at the top waiting for her, confusion etched all over his face.

He waved his hand around at the alcoves: "There's owls here, and here, and here. You just feel like climbing?"

"I got it already, I'm fine," Lily said in a hurry, dusting off her trousers. "Let's go."

"Your note's still in your pocket."

In horror, Lily stuffed a protruding bit of parchment deeper into her trousers. _Dammit._ "I said I'm fine, Logan. Let's go."

He bit his tongue and narrowed his eyes as they walked down the stairs towards the entrance. "You, um…you're not sending that?"

"I said – "

Before she could finish her sentence, what sounded like a crashing wave against a rocky shore sounded out high above in the tower canopy. Immediately afterwards the Owlery door slammed shut. A burst of adrenaline shut through Lily's veins, and for a brief second, all time seemed to slow down. Logan jumped away from her, pressing his back against the wall and clutching his wand with one hand.

"What're you doing?" he said, trying his best to sound tough. "You did something up there, didn't you?"

Heat flashed across Lily's face. "No, I swear, I'm not – "

"Tell him the truth, Lily!" sang out the very last voice she expected to hear. Out of anyone she expected to be in the Owlery – or even in Hogwarts itself – the speaker was at the very end of her list.

A flash of horrible insight hit her.

"Of course you're doing something up here!" sang Grace's voice from the rafters. "Is this why you were lonely for so long? Couldn't tell the boys any truths?"

Lily wanted to do anything but look up. When she forced herself to, however, she didn't see Grace. She didn't see a ghost at all. Instead, a very real, very physical man sat atop the rafters, his legs dangling in the air below. Behind him, the orb had opened up what looked like an inky black oval that quivered and wavered on the edges, like a tunnel opening, or a... _portal_. The man was long, lanky, and middle-aged, with a head of short-cropped silver hair that only just stood out from his pale skin. His eyes were small, black and beady, and rather than carry a wand, he held a long, knobby, wooden staff that he pressed to his neck as he spoke, his mouth stretched in a wide smile.

"Why'd it take you so long to help me?" the man asked in Grace's voice, his stare never leaving Lily. "I kept asking you in the forest, and you kept running away. Can't help Grace. Nope. Then you called me a liar! The gall! Why, I'm just a storyteller. After all, you believed in Grace the poor, suicidal ghost for so long. Why shouldn't that make her real? We had such nice conversations. Really, I didn't want you to be so lonely."

He dropped off the rafter in a sudden burst of motion, falling all the way down to the ground and landing on all fours like a cat. The man sprang up in one quick move before Logan or Lily could snap out of their shock, his staff aimed at the two students.

The man licked his lips, shot a glance Logan's way, and told Lily in a voice that suddenly was not airy and high-pitched, but rich, throaty, and without any trace of a British accent at all, "I'm a little hurt I had to write to you to get you to help me, Lily. It did feel a little like lying."

Lily quivered and pointed up with a half-hearted arm: "My – my dad's listening – or seeing – and – "

"Oh come off it, I wrote that crap, girlie," the man laughed. His eyes twinkled like a child's on Christmas morning. "You figured out I was bullshitting you with Grace, you can't figure out that I sent you a letter in the famous Harry Potter's handwriting? Nothing to be ashamed of. I know what it is to want anything but to disappoint the people you look up to. Hell, that's why I'm here. "

"It – it said – there was personal – "

He held his staff to his mouth as if thinking hard. "The _things_ you hear while eavesdropping in Hogsmeade. Thank your uncles for selling those Extendable Ears, by the way. Helpful _and_ affordable! Lovely business."

Logan finally snapped out of his stupor. "I don't know who – who you are, but our teachers – "

"Are all asleep at this hour, little hero. You two friends? Did he keep you from seeing me more, Lily? I should blow his head off. I'm a jealous man."

"They're not asleep, and they're going to find you here," Lily said, summoning up what little courage she could find. She didn't know who this man was, _what_ he was, or what he wanted, but she could put together enough pieces to know he'd been watching the castle for a long time. If he was behind Grace – or rather _was_ Grace – and her father's letter, then he could've been behind the merman, the centaur…Natalie and the sickness...

Her bravery only made him smile more: "Y'know, I like that about you, Lily. You have that little spot of courage, that little bit of _Gryffindor_ that pops out, both when you called me out for fucking up with Grace's backstory and now. And you're right. Not all of your staff does sleep at this hour, hm? There's one cowardly, chest-beating little man who teaches on that high tower at nights. What a coincidence that I want to see him. Funny, I even brought backup."

As soon as those words left his mouth, something cried out in the Owlery. It wasn't the shrieks or hoots of the owls that had sounded non-stop since his arrival. It was something else, something behind a low, mournful wail that rooted Lily to the spot. Then she saw it: A beast sauntered down the Owlery steps, a towering thing that swung its long, bony arms as it walked like it didn't have a care in the world. It was spindly, all exposed bone across its thin torso and sloping shoulders. The beast looked as if it was made of bits of the Forbidden Forest itself, with wood, leaves, twigs, and leather sticking out from its skeletal arms and sinewy legs. Curving talons reached out from its hands. The head was the worst part. If it had eyes, Lily couldn't see them: A black void stared out from what appeared to be a half-completed animal skull. Long antlers reached out from the top to finish the horrible visage.

Lily grabbed Logan's arm and pressed herself into the wall. "Who are you?"

"Not someone you'd know. My name's Sion Redgrave. You're Lily, and you are…?"

To his credit, Logan sucked in his fear: "Logan. Howe."

"Rich family. Hm," purred Sion. "How about we go pay a little visit to the only teacher who's probably up right about now, eh? Jurre Vos and I have so much catching up to do."

Lily suddenly remembered where she'd heard that name – down in the greenhouse, during her last detention as Professor Vos stepped out from the supply shed drunk: _Sion shot a curse at me that would've decapitated me…He's the kind of man who holds grudges…_

 _And I let him in. I let him trick me and let him in._

"So," said Sion, looking altogether amused, "think of me like a collections agent. I'm here to get something that your wonderful Professor Vos took from me a few years ago. Long as I get it, I leave. No harm done. Promise. I'm not here to hurt anyone."

He stepped back, steeling his face, and with a sharp jab, he sent lightning coursing down his staff. It clung to the end like the head of a mace. "You all study magical beasts? Yes? No? This here's a wendigo. They call my native Canada home. They get stronger the older the get, and this one's about…eh, ninety or so. It has a long history of tearing people into itty-bitty, teeny-weeny bits. Like bouillon cubes, except with people." He leaned closed to Lily and Logan as if to tell them a secret. "Let's just say if we get to fighting instead of giving me what's mine, our little get-together won't have a happy ending."

"There are other students, and staff, and – " Lily stammered.

"Three, four, we get some more! Or, y'know," Sion said, sticking out his lower lip in a pouty face as he pointed his electrified staff at the wendigo. "Could be bad. Right, let's not loiter! That's a finable offense in my home country. At least for the muggles. Sometimes. Off we go. Let's go see Vos."

Logan gave Lily a sad, sideways glance. She saw something else in his defeated eyes, a nasty voice to match the one in her own mind: _What have you done?_


	23. The Traverse

_**Thanks to Psych0Geek, Mermaid1108, mywildcharmsforyou, and WeedyPotter for the great reviews! Psych0 – it is indeed the endgame, but as for Lily not doing anything, most certainly not. When one's actions land people into a predicament, one's actions must lead them out. She's hardly going to let a crazy man one-up her without putting up a stiff resistance.**_

 _ **As for what Vos looks like, wildcharms…handsome, eh, maybe more like rugged, haha. He's in his late forties and has spent most of his life outside, but he's big, muscular, and the like, so pros and cons in there. He's certainly not a stranger to…well, getting what he wants, haha.**_

 _ **Away we go as I finally break ground on the "lost mystery" part of the story description!**_

* * *

"Hold up."

Sion stepped outside the Owlrey door and took a look around the empty corridor. Grunting in satisfaction, he ushered Lily and Logan out into the hall and waited for his pet wendigo to lumber out behind them before pulling a white globe, furry and small like the one Lily had placed up in the rafters, out of his pocket. He felt around its edges, curling his lip in concentration before sliding his fingernail into a groove. With a _whoosh_ , a pale green globe – some sort of magical energy, Lily guessed – burst around them and hung in the air, suspended out just far enough to envelop the four of them within it.

"Know what this is?" Sion said. He moved to explain, thought better of it, and said, "Nahhh. But look out there. That fly buzzing there'll tell ya."

Just outside of the magical boundary, a solitary fly hung in the air. Lily could see each individual beat of its wings, up, down, up, down, beating with a composer's cadence in the still air. Around it, particles of dust hung frozen and still in the pre-dawn glow that just shone through the east-facing windows.

"It's like a submarine in time – oh that's a shit analogy. Neither of you are going to know what a submarine is. But time goes slow out there, normal speed in here. So if we're going anywhere _other_ than to where Vos is, let's say whoever we run into won't even realize we're here before I tenderize them," Sion added, grimacing for effect. "Yeeks. Pretty sure your ministry's banned this sort of magic, but I'm not a citizen, I don't care. I'm already breaking the law! Ready-o, let's go."

Lily's head struggled in quicksand, submerging and flailing before breaking the psychosomatic surface for a desperate gasp of air. Her breaths were ragged, shredded things, and she only just clung to Logan's hand with a clammy grip. Trembles quaked through his fingers into hers. Despite his attempts to put on a brave face, Logan stumbled over his own feet every three steps and looked to Lily for support just as much as she looked to him.

The dichotomy of Sion and the wendigo didn't help. The beast lumbered behind the three of them, its talons swishing through the air in long arcs on either side of Lily and Logan. It exhaled in baritone groans, its breath stinking of mildew and rot and overgrown forests long in need of a lightning storm to clear out the dead wood. Sion, on the contrary, skipped in front of them, turning backwards from time to time to point out something he noticed: "This is really lovely craftsmanship. _Gothic_ architecture, it's underrated – thirteenth century style, so if your people built this place in the 900s, did it have a renovation? I'm more of a fan of art deco, but fuck me, we stopped building castles long before last century got underway."

Flames hung in the air, still, statuesque on frozen torches as they moved under the magical bubble. Lily and Logan were too afraid to point Sion elsewhere but straight towards the Astronomy Tower. Lightning still ran up and down the end of his staff, and even without the magic, Lily guessed that the heavy, thick, dark wood was strong enough to crack a skull in one swing.

"Will you let us go when we get there?" Lily whispered as they walked down the hall leading to the Astronomy Tower.

"Nope."

"We can't help you," Lily said, determined to stop the quaking in her voice. "We don't even know what you're looking for."

The beast snorted, and Lily jumped. "It's not really about what you know, but more that you're here in the first place," Sion said as they climbed the steps to the tower. "Y'see, you're motivation for Jurre to get the job down. Once he does and gives back what he took, we can all shake hands, I'll leave, and you can go back to playing school. It's really that simple. Besides, Lily, don't you want to see what your wonderful teacher has been keeping under your noses this whole year?"

Lily didn't need him to tell her. She had a hunch forming in the back of her mind, a fog slowly parting and revealing the damp, murky, dark halls in the bowels of the dungeon, searching for cats and finding all sorts of other things – and a certain professor, to boot. Had the Headmaster agreed to keep something down there? Store something away where students wouldn't find it, far from any probing eyes?

The sky hadn't so much as turned orange when the stepped out onto the tower portico. Sion glanced into the loft, pointed a finger, and raised an eyebrow towards Lily. _There?_ Fighting her instinct to do something, _anything_ , she nodded. Trying to be a hero with only Logan to fight off one fully-grown wizard and the horrendous beast had no chance of ending up alright.

Something else flooded Lily's veins right there and then, however, something hot and burning. After all this, after being tricked by this horrible, insane man, being made a fool, after everything that had happened over the year and knowing her best friend was in the hospital wing because…maybe, most likely, because of _this_ …she couldn't just lay down and do _nothing_.

A moment. The right moment. That's what she needed.

Sion slid his finger into his orb again, collapsing the magical bubble. Time sped up around them. A fierce wind suddenly blew Lily's hair every which way. The trees, previously still at slight angles, rustled and waved in the gusts. Birds chirping sprouted out of the silent nothingness.

"Why don't you stay out here and watch the lovely dawn, Logan? Lily and I can go have a nice chat with dear old teacher buddy," Sion said. The wendigo groaned and laid a talon on Logan's shoulder. He folded his arms over his chest, bent his head down, and watched Lily with a desperate expression. If anything, he had to be feeling worse, Lily thought – at least she'd woken up with the expressed intent of trying to figure out this mess, even if it'd gone far different than she'd imagined after receiving her father's - Sion's – letter.

As Lily and Sion walked down into the tower's lower loft, however, Professor Vos's office door burst open. His wand and hand stuck out from behind the door, shooting a wild jet of light out of the blue in their direction. Lily shrieked and covered her eyes. Sion whipped his staff in front of them both, sending the spell hurtling out of an open-air alcove into the morning air.

"That's not very _Hogwarts_ of you!" Sion mocked. "Your students are going to think you're the bad guy!"

Vos poked his head out, hiding behind his wand. He looked at Lily, his mouth gaping the tiniest bit in surprise, but he didn't lower his wand. "Yelling like that's a shite way to say good morning."

"Isn't this evening for you? Staying up all night and staring at stars? Yawn. Nighty-night?"

"Why's she here?" Vos gruffed, waving his wand at Lily. "You doing your best Voldemort impression now, Sion? Killing random people for kicks?"

He shrugged. "Naw. It's just when somebody lets you in, it's real rude to abandon them. I feel like I know Lily on a personal level. Like we're friends. In fact, most of this year she thought we were. That's heart-warming!"

"The fuck you on about?"

"Look," Sion said, waving his staff around in front of Lily. "This is the part where I'd say it's great to see you again, but since it's really, really not, how about you take me to where you're hiding what you stole from him?"

 _Him?_ Lily didn't want to think what that meant. Vos took in stride: "If he wants it, he could've come himself."

"Not really. Anyway, Jurre, the longer we stick around chatting like old people at a discount coffee chain, the more likely someone's going to get hurt. You know what I want. We can talk on the way. I get it back, I leave. You can pretend to be a teacher to your heart's content after that. Playtime with the kiddies. Tea and crumpets or whatever the Brits do. Otherwise, I brought a certain friend of ours who's going to tear Lily's entrails out. Then we'll finish what we started the last time I saw you. That work?"

Vos looked annoyed more than anything. He pocketed his wand, stepped out, and threw up his hands. "Fine. Not a very interesting chat anyway. You do know the instant someone sees us in the halls, this all goes to hell, right?"

"Thought of that," Sion said, tossing his globe up and catching it at its apogee. "We can all huddle together. Cozy. You're a big guy, probably cuddly. Is that why Alanis liked you all those years?"

"We going or not?" Vos snapped at him, brushing by as Sion laughed, pushing Lily forward.

Vos stopped when he saw Logan under the shadow of the wendigo on the portico, glancing at him, at Lily, and saying nothing. He barely even registered their presence, instead tromping diligently towards the portico door, down the tower, and into the castle halls. To Lily, it almost looked as if her professor wasn't even trying to put up a fight, as if he'd lost some grand poker game and was tossing his cards on the ground alongside all his lost chips.

Time slowed again under the bubble. They passed by Peeves in the Grand Staircase, the poltergeist in the process of setting up a minefield of stink bombs right before one of the trick steps on the stairs, caught in such slow motion that he didn't even notice them walk on by. It was as if Lily was watching a diorama of the castle unfold around her, glazed over with a glaucoma that felt dreamlike, nightmarish. All that felt real was Logan in shock next to her, Vos walking in front of them, his head hung low but his hands balled into fists, Sion making odd comments about paintings, and the beast, the thudding steps of its bony feet and its ragged breathing reminding her that she'd woken up long ago.

"How long you been trying to get in?" Vos asked as they curled down the stairs past the second floor, his voice conversational, as if he was held up by a madman every day. "You kill the centaur last spring?"

Sion shook his thumb at the wendigo. "He killed him, not me. Shitty Imperius curse. I got creative after that as our best friend took the centaurs to town. They're really pretty dumb. Just bull-rushing something that's tearing them apart, not a smart strategy. Idiots ran off with only half their number after a while."

"Did you make everyone sick, too?" Lily asked, her voice low and bitter.

"Huh? Oh, that. Ha, that was a major screw-up," laughed Sion. "The _goal_ was to make a sort of Imperius disease, y'know, an infection that would rot people's brains and let me control them like that. Jeez, I'm not a biologist. I tried testing it on this nutter from the ministry who wandered into the forest this summer. Didn't work. Adjusted it for a couple months, tried again on a larger scale, zilch. Think I won't do that again. But hey, I made something good out of it."

He cleared his voice. "You'll be proud of little Lily here, Jurre. After I caught wind of the school going into quarantine mode for the second time, what d'you, know, her famous father wrote her and told her to help out the Aurors! And did Lily hide or ignore it? Nope. She sprang into action. Except, you know, it was me. Funny thing, I didn't _feel_ famous or great when I wrote my letter to her as her father. I just…felt like a normal person."

"Probably for the first time in your life," Vos said, rolling his eyes as they stepped down onto the ground floor. He glanced about the still torches and the frozen fires, the Great Hall like a picture through its great doors. "How'd you get an infection in? Castle defenses would've kept something like that out."

"Yeah, figured out the defenses, thanks. Good lord, what even happened to my merman? Anyway, I infected a bunch of mice and sent them all over the place. Most didn't go the right way, but a few ran straight into that half-giant gameskeeper's pumpkin patch. Baffled that you people actually eat what grows out here."

Lily gulped. _Pumpkins_. She'd seen mice in Hagrid's patch when she and James had gone to visit him…and Nat had eaten the pumpkin pie on Halloween…

"Down to the dungeons," Vos grunted, nodding ahead as they descended.

Something was funny about this, Lily thought. Professor Vos was _way_ too nonchalant about this. Was he collaborating in secret? Or did he have something planned? Did he know something, expect this ahead of time and lay a trap?

Sion seemed to be noticing as well. "Why the dungeons?"

"You think I'm keeping something dangerous in the dormitories?" Vos snorted. "Down in the lowest parts of the dungeon, the hidden parts, there's a cave that feeds into the lake. When what you're keeping needs to stay wet most of the time, that is kind of important. Gimme a break, bru. Fookin' relax."

"Jurre, you screw with me and your two students are bits. That's before I make my way back up to the castle. By the time I'm done, wizarding Britain is going to be crying."

Vos paused, looking at him with a baffled expression. "You do know what you've been working all this time to get, right? He's gotten pretty big. How are you supposed to be getting him out of the castle again?"

"I got that part covered. You think I brought this time-slowing ball just so we didn't run into trouble in the hallways? I intend to get the jump on your dungeon-dwelling science project. You take me there, you forget all about it. I'm getting antsy. Let's go."

Lily shivered as they walked down the dungeon corridors, past the closed door to the Potions classroom, and down to the cobblestone halls she'd ventured with Scorpius and Hugo. It wasn't just the colder air chilling her, however, but the way Professor Vos talked about whatever Sion was after. _He's gotten pretty big._ What was _he?_ One thing was clear: Vos wasn't just hiding something down here, he was hiding something _weird_.

"I gotta ask," Sion said, his giddy smile lowering just a smidgeon as they ventured deeper, "Lily and Logan, what d'you think of this guy, huh? Poor poor Professor Vos, grew up in a warzone, coming here to teach about stars and planets? Wizened, tough guy, cool teacher? That sort of thing?"

"More than I think of you," Logan said, although his shaky voice didn't match the conviction of his words.

Sion laughed: "Oh boy, you have no idea who this man is. The things we've gotten into and done. Whew."

When they reached the dungeon cave-in, Lily thought her moment had come. Sion frowned, glanced at Vos, and lowered the time-slowing bubble before silently clearing the rubble out of the way with his staff. For a moment Lily considered shouting, pulling her wand and making a loud noise, but as if reading her thoughts, the wendigo sidled up next to her and leered at her with its black face of nothingness. She swallowed hard and stared back up at it, holding her ground in the face of the towering beast.

Once they cleared through the numerous rubble blocks, Sion threw aside all pretenses of joviality. He held his staff out like a gun, clutching the time ball in a death grip as Vos led him forward. Logan wasn't faring much better – he stuck like glue to Lily in the dim light of Vos's wand. They passed through the magical illusion where Headmaster Maribor had grabbed Lily and fated her to her month of detentions, a laughable punishment in light of things. There ahead was the old stone lift she'd seen Vos step out of – would they have to…

"In we go," Vos said, nodding towards the lift. "Original parts of the castle."

"It's like a damn archaeology field trip," Sion grumbled. Nevertheless he followed Vos into the lift, shoving Lily and Logan in before him. The wendigo stooped after them, just fitting in with its antlered head touching either side of the lift as the door closed.

Stone grated on stone as it descended. Lily felt her heart race, as if things were coming together all at once. She hoped so, at the very least: The wendigo's presence and Sion's twitchy grip on his staff frayed her nerves to the point where they threatened to unravel. Yet when they reached the bottom and the lift opened, Vos led them on through another series of dark, damp passages, this way, then that. Lichen gripped the stone and made the floor smooth and slippery, and more than once Lily had to reach out and grab Logan to keep her balance.

Then there was something in the air, some foul smell…old cabbage maybe, the smell of wet dirt, worms, something else…

Sion stopped suddenly. The magical bubble wavered around them, a lone bit of green light in the strict darkness of the tunnels. He squinted into the darkness, biting his lip. Logan inhaled sharply, slipping on the rocks himself. There, Lily saw…did she see? A black outline of something in a widening of the tunnel ahead, something large, something smooth and glistening in the weak light from Professor Vos's wand, almost like the tentacles of the giant squid in the lake but softer. Whatever it was, object, weapon, animal, whatever, it was as still as the rest of the world outside of the bubble, nearly frozen in the slowed time. When Lily tried to see through the darkness for a better look, pain shot through the back of her head. She winced, looking away.

"Oh, he has gotten big," Sion breathed. He squared his shoulders and sucked in his breath like a fighter preparing for a bout. "See, Jurre? You bring me to what I want, you can keep your kids and go. Nobody hurt. Promise is a promise. Right after I take this big boy home, at least."

"And how's that work?"

"Same why I got in. Orb here's basically blowing a hole in your magical defenses from the inside out."

"Really?"

Sion stepped back and aimed his staff point-blank at Vos's chest. "I did say right after I'm finished. You really want to see little Lily and Logan here in pieces? Fuck with me and you will. They're so cute together intact, all scared like. Now, I'm just going to walk right up to our puppy here, all safe and sound – "

That was it. Now or never, suicidal or not. As Vos opened his mouth to say something, whatever his plan, Lily snatched her wand out of her pocket. The wendigo howled, but before it could smack her head off, she dipped down, aimed her wand, and shouted, " _Incendio!_ "

Sion was ready, but Vos fired a millisecond after. Sion swatted away Vos's curse as Lily's flame caught his time-slowing orb, knocking it out of his hand, collapsing the magical bubble, and lighting the globe up in a blossom of orange fire.

A second later the wendigo caught her. Logan threw himself in front of Lily as the beast backhanded him in the chest, hurling both of them sideways into a wall. Before any of them could make another move, however, time came together and the giant thing in the darkness roared.

It was a cry, a moan, a scream of rage, an echo that made Lily's ears explode in pain and traveled right in through to her brain. Logan shouted in pain, and further away, Sion stood transfixed, staring down the passage, fingers gripping his forehead. Lily winced and looked involuntarily down the tunnel. Something gloopy, round, and white – lots of things – stared back.

Her mind exploded. Images, sounds, smells, feelings, magic, _experiences_ all rushed through her head in a single instant, a frenzied flash she couldn't understand and didn't want to anyway. A moment later Lily came to on the lichen-covered floor, her fingernails digging into the skin of her forehead and speckled with blood.

Professor Vos dragged her behind a wall as Logan, his wand out, pressed himself to the stones. Across the tunnel intersection the wendigo had retrieved its master as he woke from the same stupor, grimacing and clutching his head.

"Lily Potter. You little whore," Sion swore, shaking his head and getting to his feet. "Kids are just growing up too fast these days."

"Your fault for bringing them into this," Vos said, holding his wand aloft. "They're not just kids. Lily's a witch. Logan's a wizard. You're outnumbered, and you have royally pissed me off."

Sion laughed. "That is the craziest thing I have heard all day, and I was just mind-grilled by our friend there. Don't say I didn't warn you about what's going to happen." He turned to the wendigo and added, "Leave the tall one for me. Kill the little black-haired one. Bring the red-haired one to me. I'm gutting her myself."


	24. Above and Below

"You two back to the lift, now!" shouted Vos.

"We're not running!" Lily and Logan said at the same time.

Vos grimaced as the wendigo crouched down to lunge. "Then draw that thing away! I can't take them both at once."

The beast snarled and charged. It lowered its head, missing Vos by an inch with its antlers as he dropped and rolled, lurching aside to avoid a curse from Sion's staff. Logan grabbed Lily's hand, pulling her into an adjacent passage as the beast hurtled past. Lily took one glance back down the hall, watching Sion on his feet, twirling away from Vos's curses with a laugh and a smile, drawing him deeper into the darkness and away from them.

"How are we supposed to fight that?" Lily yelled, lighting her wand and dashing down the hall on Logan's heels. "We never learned anything about that!"

"Think while we run! You heard Professor Vos," said Logan, throwing a look over his shoulder. "Come on!"

Their shouting lured the beast deeper into the labyrinth of tunnels. Lily was lost; she couldn't have made her way back to the lift except by accident anyway, and with the wendigo's rumbling footsteps thundering down the halls behind her, she didn't have time to go over just which way they'd walked down here.

Lily collided with Logan as they reached an intersection. "Where do we go?"

"That way," Logan said on a wild whim, pointing to the right.

Before they could run, a growl cut through the darkness. It wasn't the moaning wail of the wendigo, but the otherworldly cry of that _thing_ Lily'd just barely made out in the darkness, the thing of tentacles and…and _eyes_ and terror, the thing Vos had kept hidden for what Lily now realized was a very good reason.

She didn't want it hidden now.

"Lure it back," Lily panted, pointing down the left hall to where the cry had come from. Darkness and cobblestone stared back. "Back to the monster thing Sion wanted."

"Are you crazy? You collapsed on – "

"I know, Logan! What other choice do we have? We can't beat it ourselves!"

They both spun as the wendigo snarled behind them. It bounded forward like a freight train, antlers lowered, talons flashing as it pumped its arms.

"Just go!" Lily shouted, hurtling down the left passage.

" _Lumos solem!_ " shouted Logan, firing a blinding jet of light behind them as they ran. The wendigo didn't so much as notice the flare: It pummeled right on through unhindered, throwing out a skeletal foot to skid to a stop as its prey danced out of its grasp again.

Lily clutched a stitch in her side, panting, winded, her breaths ragged and torn. She kept her wand out in front, desperate for something to help. The wendigo didn't tire despite its size, and while it was slow turning and changing course, its straight-line speed was more than enough to run down two twelve year-olds.

"This way!" Logan shouted, pulling Lily away at the last second as the wendigo swatted at her with its talons.

She shrieked as a hot lance raked her left shoulder. Logan pulled her just in time to avoid the worst of the blow, but when Lily looked over her shoulder and waved her wand up in the air, she saw three jagged red lines engraved in her back. They were shallow cuts, but more than enough to make her cry out in pain.

"You okay?" Logan panted, pulling her down the hall and away from the recovering beast.

She nodded, swallowing a tough gulp: "Where is that thing?!"

"Just run!"

They quickly ran out of running room. Logan barreled down a corner turn straight into a dead end, and when Lily pulled him away to turn back, she came face-to-face with a very angry-looking monster. The wendigo spread its arms wide enough to reach from wall to wall, cutting off their escape with sheer size. It wailed and lumbered forward, daring them to challenge its cruel claws. Its black void of a face made the hairs on the back of Lily's neck stand up so straight they threatened to detach.

" _Incendio!_ " shouted Logan, flourishing his wand at the beast.

The wendigo swatted away the spell with bored ease, the magical flame reflecting off its hand.

"Go under it," Lily breathed, backing as far against the wall as she could. "On three. One, two, three!"

They split on either side, ducking as low as they could to avoid the creature's attacks. The wendigo wasn't fooled: It swung its right leg wide, kneeing Lily in the face and dropping her to the ground. With its left hand it darted and snatched Logan in mid-stride, pinning him by the waist against the wall. He thrashed to get free, but the beast held tight, surveying him like a mouse caught in a trap.

"Logan!" Lily screamed.

"Just go," he gasped, grimacing, his eyes clamped shut.

"No! _Stupefy!_ "

The one time she needed Vos's stunning spell to work failed her again as a cloud of scarlet sparks popped out of her wand's end like a party favor. The wendigo glanced at her as if amused, then raised its free hand, about to decapitate Logan with one long talon.

Lily had one last, desperate, idiot thing left in her arsenal: She reached around into her back pocket, pulled out George's dungbomb, and hurled it straight into the wendigo's chest.

Brown, splotchy goo burst out from the prank. The beast looked confused at first, but as the stench of fresh defecation rose, it began to shudder. It dropped Logan to the ground, clawing at its chest, growling and grunting, then screaming and howling. It flailed in every direction, and Lily just pulled Logan out of the way as the wendigo thrashed and lurched, more as if it had been blinded rather than distracted with a simple stinkbomb. It banged its head against a wall, scraping at its chest and torso in a desperate bid to rid itself of the putrid smell.

Lily half-dragged Logan away from the flailing beast and down a nearby corridor. "You're hurt," she said, shining her wand light over his waist. He grimaced as she touched long, red lines around his stomach, oozing blood down his hip. "Let me help you."

"I'm fine," he said, but when he tried to jog down the hall, he stumbled and braced himself against the stone wall.

"Here," Lily said, pulling his arm over her shoulder for balance. "We're getting out of here. We're going to get out and get help together. Lean on me! Come on!"

Struggling under Logan's weight, Lily lurched forward. She grimaced, glancing back now and then as the wendigo screeched and howled, still apparently struggling with the stench of the dungbomb. Try as she might to stay strong for Logan's sake, she couldn't help but think this was a doomed attempt: She had no idea where the lift was, and the wendigo couldn't stay down forever, could it?

She received her answer when she came to an opening in the tunnels. A wide area expanded before her, somewhere they hadn't been before, the walls damper, covered not in cobblestone but in rock that dripped into pools on the rough, natural, stony floor. And ahead –

"The lift!" Logan panted. "But that doesn't look like the one we came down on."

"Who cares?"

"If it goes down further into the foundation – "

He didn't have time to finish. Lily looked back to see the wendigo standing in the hall behind them, still clawing at itself but lurching their way, a lost, flailing, howling whirl of bone and danger.

Lily pulled her wand and let Logan go. "Get on the lift," she breathed, biting her lip. "I'll do something to distract it. Go."

"No, you're not," Logan grunted. He clutched one hand to his waist, the other holding his wand out. "We can do something stupid together."

Lily closed her eyes, inhaled, and looked up to see a black, slimy snake snatch one of the wendigo's legs.

The beast tripped and howled in confusion. There, out of the depths, she saw it: Vos's _thing_ crawled forth, reaching out another tentacle and wrapping it around the wendigo's neck. Lily thought it was a giant octopus at first, or a kraken, but with way too many arms, two slug-like tails dragging behind its central, globular, blobby torso, and eyes, eyes everywhere, where they should have been and where they shouldn't. It was a hair smaller than the wendigo but didn't so much as register its prey's thrashing, merely enveloping it with another tentacle around its waist.

One eye on the creature's center, black, gelatinous mass looked up, straight at Lily. Pain exploded through her head. She shrieked and bent down, digging her fingernails into her head as a rush of color and sensory input, smells, sights, sounds, voices, dashed across her mind, an otherworldly blast of…dreams? Memories? _Imprints_ that weren't hers, as if she'd dived into the minds of a thousand people over the course of a fraction of a second.

She only just felt Logan helping her to her feet. "Don't look at it," he wheezed, pulling her towards the lift.

The horrible noises behind her were enough. Yowling, screaming, and shrieking melded with the horrible snapping of bone and the tension of muscle. Lily forced her way into the lift, her head throbbing, unsure of how even to work this thing. As Logan stumbled on after her, it rumbled to life, awakening some sort of magic that had realized they were aboard. As they ascended, Lily saw Vos's monster pressing the wendigo into the ground. Its jumble of eyes all bore into the beast's face as the wendigo thrashed about, reaching up and tearing off one of its own antlers in an induced insanity.

Then the lift cleared the stone wall above and it all disappeared.

Lily slumped against the lift wall, breathing hard as they climbed. Remembering Logan's wound, she bent down to take a look. Blood seeped out of his long cut, running down his legs now. Logan's face was pale, and he grimaced when she touched the gash.

"What was that thing?" Logan breathed. "That was not natural."

"I don't know if I want to find out," Lily said, still holding her head with one hand. Her temples throbbed.

"You know," he added, wincing, "you got me into whatever on earth this mess is, and then saved me from that thing. You're stupid and brilliant. We're even, then, right?"

"Don't keep score," she said, allowing herself a little smile.

When the lift finally released them, they were no longer surrounded by old, dripping cobblestone walls. Instead a long, dark, earthen passage stretched in front of them until it reached a rubble-strewn cave-in fifty meters or so away. When Lily approached it, however, she found it wasn't rubble at all.

"It's an illusion," she said, reaching her hand straight through the image of rock and touching nothing but air. "Where are we?"

She and Logan made their way down the passage little by little, slowed down by their injuries, stopping here and there for a moment before pushing forward. Pinpoints of morning sunlight shined into the tunnel as they curved around a bend – they sure hadn't taken the same lift they'd come down on.

The tunnel opened up into a dark, damp cave just lit by the shimmering of sunlight on the Black Lake ahead. Lily helped Logan over the sharp, slippery rocks, the two of them making their way out to the edge of the lake before they at last reached the muddy boundary where the land met the water.

When Lily looked about out in the open, she saw they were well-hidden: The cave's opening sloped down and faced straight into a rock wall, out of sight from anyone who wasn't intending on coming here – or exploring very thoroughly. Hogwarts stretched up high above them down the cliff face, the Black Lake reaching out to the left of the cave's concealed opening. It was like some sort of emergency escape route, built into the castle hundreds of years ago.

"The boathouse!" Lily yelped, pointing to the small, high-ceilinged building ahead. "There's people in there! _Periculum!_ "

A shower of red sparks shot from her wand high into the air, above the cliff face and reaching out over the lake and in full view of the castle. Lily gritted her teeth, grabbed Logan's arm over her shoulder, and stumbled forward as two shadows shifted inside the windows of the boathouse.

Someone large stepped out of the boathouse. "Who's there?" shouted a familiar voice. Lily let out a gasp of relief as Hagrid walked closer, his look of caution turning into a face full of confusion. "Is tha' – Lily? What are yeh – how did yeh – "

Professor Longbottom stepped out of the boathouse after him, his wand out, his brow furrowed. "Merlin!" he exclaimed. "Hagrid, they're hurt! Lily, Logan, you two stay where you are! What happened?"

Logan winced and pointed back towards the cave. "Professor, there's – Professor Vos is down there."

"What?" Professor Longbottm said, incredulous. "He's with you? Down where?"

Hurried footsteps pounded behind Lily. She looked back over her shoulder, expecting to see Vos rushing out after them.

"Well. This is a fun morning."

Sion stepped out from behind the rocks. A long gash ran down the left side of his face, another from his right shoulder to left armpit. A singe burned a line in his scalp, but he clutched his staff in his hand, still dangerous, looking between Lily, Logan, Hagrid, and Neville with a mix of exhaustion and excitement.

Time seemed to freeze for an instant. Lily's breath caught in her chest. Professor Longbottom snapped out of it first, raising his wand to shoot a spell, but Sion was quicker. He jabbed his staff forward like a spear, blasting a telekinetic wave that knocked Neville, Lily, and Logan off their feet. Hagrid skidded several feet, righted himself, steeled his face, and charged. Lily had never seen Hagrid as anything close to angry, but his face was full of rage as he rushed at Sion.

He didn't get far. Sion whipped his staff at him, launching a stream of lightning that Hagrid face-first and plastered him into the ground. He snarled, pouring on the onslaught as Hagrid groaned and twisted in a vain attempt to get away from the rush of electricity.

"No!" Lily shouted, pulling her wand. " _Incendio!_ "

Sion deflected her fire with ease, but Neville rounded on him and fired an orange burst. The two traded barbs, firing, deflecting, side-stepping, and as Sion began forcing Neville back, Vos dashed out of the rocks behind Lily. His face was covered in dirt and blood, a gash in his left wrist opened up to the bone, but he rounded on his rival with a look of pure hatred.

"Hagrid!" Lily shouted, rushing around Neville as he launched a barrage of attacks against Sion, the latter pirouetting and dancing away from the two-pronged assault, his defenses and spell casting now less violent and more relaxed, graceful even, despite his murderous intent. Hagrid's fate was evidence of that: He was breathing hard, unconscious, his face, neck, and chest burned so badly that his skin looked volcanic. Sion's lightning had singed the old gameskeeper's hair and beard off completely, and Lily, with little she could do, grabbed his hand. _Hold on, Hagrid_.

Something swooped from the sky as Sion knocked Neville flat. Lily squinted, looked up, and saw someone on a broom rushing down from the castle, moving in fast. Sion fired a green curse at the rider, missed, and ducked as Headmaster Maribor landed, tossed away his broom, surveyed the situation, and pulled his wand.

"Neville," he said, not taking his eyes off of Sion, "get Hagrid out of here. Jurre, see to the kids. I'll handle whoever this is."

Sion composed himself, brushing off dirt and twirling his staff in his hands. "The ex-Auror has bold words, hm? Bit too bold for this hour."

"Get away from my people and get out of my school, beast," Maribor snarled.

Sion smiled, waved his wand, and attacked. Maribor was ready and countered in an instant, the two circling each other, launching furious assault after assault, magic snapping against their shield charms and jets of light shooting every which way. Professor Vos stood over Lily and Logan, knocking away errant curses, his jaw set as Neville waited on the other side to cover for any slip-up from Maribor.

The Headmaster wouldn't give him the chance. Lily saw why the other teachers respected him: He didn't look like how she imagined her father's Aurors, but instead like a warrior caught up in the fury of blood and battle, his teeth gritted, his face curled into a wolf-like snarl, his wand a whip cracking through the air with each spell. Sion fell back on the defensive, retreating towards the boathouse as he knocked away curse after curse, his air of confidence gone, exhaustion from a long fight now taking over. Maribor was fresh on the other hand, and lit into Sion so viciously he blasted a hole in the boathouse wall with a missed spell.

Sion curled back towards Lily as Vos shot a stunner at him. He dove, avoided another round of attacks from Maribor, and somersaulted, picking up the Headmaster's broom in the act. With one quick motion he slid one leg over the broom handle, deflected a curse, and shot into the air, backing away from the five of them and smirking: "You coward, Jurre. Losing me in the tunnels when we had a fair fight going. Hiding inside your castle. You can't hide forever."

He glanced at Lily and laughed. "Think I'll keep an eye on little Potter here, though. Until our next chat, Lily."

With that he turned his broom around, deflected a final curse from Maribor, and retreated out over the lake and away.


	25. What Hides Within

_**Thanks again to my awesome reviewers after the last chapter, Psych0Geek, HoneydukeHPlover, and mywildcharmsforyou! That means a lot Honeyduke, thank you! Psych0 – astute point; I was using the style of Sirius/Bellatrix as part of the blueprint (along with some completely unrelated fights not even from HP) but you're right about the emotional impact that followed with that one. As for Logan, he ended up a little bit more of a sacrifice than intended in the cutting room of my mind (I try to be concise, with mixed results), but we'll be seeing a lot more of him – and other students/staff – in the future, not to fear. Thank you on the action compliment, too – that's something I was iffy on when writing it, so glad to see that it worked out alright from a readership standpoint.**_

 _ **Final chapter of Book 1, go. Like I said in the beginning, Book 2 will continue on in this thread; no need to jump around from link to link.**_

* * *

"Hagrid!"

Lily squirmed away from Vos and hurried over to Hogwarts's unconscious Gamekeeper. His giant chest heaved up and down, his eyelids fluttering but closed, the black and red scarring on his face looking worse by the minute. Neville caught her and her back as she wriggled and writhed to get close, to do _something_ , anything but watch in helpless grief. Up to now her letting Sion into the castle hadn't inflicted any lasting harm, but Hagrid…

Headmaster Maribor's expression wrinkled as he pocketed his wand, staring out at the lake with a sense of longing, his eyes narrowed and hungry like a wolf that had just missed taking down a deer in winter. "Thief took my broom," he muttered.

"Headmaster – " Neville started, still holding a thrashing Lily tight.

"Leave him where he is," ordered Maribor, jabbing a finger at Hagrid and spinning on his heel back towards the castle. "Moving him might worsen the damage. I'll flag down the people from St. Mungo's and send them to join you out here. Then I'm off to London."

"London?"

Maribor's face darkened. "I'm going to have an unpleasant talk with the Auror's Office about down which toilet the Ministry's Galleons are going. When I get back, all of us are going to chat."

With that he raised the hood on his robe over his forehead, balled his fists, and stalked off towards the castle. Vos peeled Lily away from Neville as the latter crouched down to get a better look at Hagrid's wounds.

"Let me stay!" Lily cried, still struggling in Vos's arms. "Let me stay and help!"

Vos dragged her away towards the stone steps leading up to the castle: "He'll be fine. He's a tough old guy. Lily, come on."

"I want to help him!"

"You've done all you can today," said Vos, pushing her along with one strong hand. "Lily, you did fine. You did better than I could've hoped if you'd told me you wanted to face up with a man like that. You're a survivor and a fighter beyond your age, but I doubt you're much of a healer just yet. I guess I can be wrong again, but let the professionals handle it. They'll patch him up. Let go, alright? Let go."

"Lily," Logan whispered ahead of them, "we're okay."

She turned. He clutched his arm around his waist, the wendigo's gashes still oozing blood. His face was pale, his eyes sunken, his fighting strength wearing out now that Sion had run. A weight, an exhaustion, hit Lily like a truck all at once. Her shoulder pain flared up where the beast had raked her, and her nerves, standing on edge ever since she'd first seen Sion sitting atop the Owlery rafters, gave way to a rising tide of weariness and realization of what had just happened.

 _Of what happened…oh, I'm going to be in so much trouble._

Minutes, steps, and surroundings rushed by. They were climbing the steps to Hogwarts, then moving up through cordoned-off stairs and hallways. There was Healer Justman at the entrance to the Hospital Wing, demanding a play-by-play from Vos, who threatened to blast him out a window if he didn't let them in. There was the ward filled with curtained-off beds and the people from St. Mungo's in their white robes and blue sashes, looking up with quizzical eyes and confused frowns as Vos half-dragged Logan to a pair of private beds in an isolated room in the ward's rear, Lily trudging after them with her head down. There was the sun rising, the morning light shining in as Vos pushed her into a bed and Justman forced her to drink a super-sweet, steaming, purple-red potion that made her shudder, heat and butterflies and fluff rushing down her throat as her head crash-landed atop a pillow.

When she awoke from the ink of dreamless sleep, a gray, moody wet blanket covered the sky. There high in the sky, rising above the mountains to the east, was the sun poking through the clouds. It shimmered, shaded for a moment and glinting through a gap in the cloud cover the next, struggling, fighting, but still there.

A weight shifted on her knee. Lily sat upright in a hurry, fear shooting through her mind, her fight-or-flight reflex kicking into full gear.

"Hey, hey, I'm here. I'm here. You're safe. Everything's fine."

She caught her breath. Logan rested across the aisle, asleep, his chest fluttering in and out with long breaths. On a stool beside her bed, however, sat –

"Dad!" Lily cried. She tried to sit up in a hurry, winced, and fell back to her bed, clutching her shoulder.

Harry held her back with a smile on his face. "Take it easy, bouncy. You don't have to take on dark wizards every day."

Lily blanched as her mind came together. "Dad – where – what – Hagrid – "

"He's, er," Harry started, fretting and lowering his head. "He's at St. Mungo's sweetie. He'll live. He'll be fine. Less hair, and his teaching days are done. He's a great teacher, it's hard, but, well, Care of Magical Creatures wasn't the greatest class of all time, anyway."

"It's my fault!" Lily wailed, scrunching her eyes shut and fighting back tears. "All this is! I got people hurt!"

"Lily, no, listen to me, you did – "

"I'm going to be in so much trouble. They're going to expel me, the Headmaster's going to – "

"Sweetie, stop," Harry said, his voice growing just hard enough to cut her off even as his expression softened and his eyes sloped down. "Your Headmaster came to the Ministry yesterday and told me everything that happened. I had a talk with him, with your professors – not a real _nice_ talk, there was a lot of yelling – and I have a pretty good idea on what happened. You're not in any trouble."

Lily flopped over on her side and turned away. "I did everything wrong."

"Listen to me," Harry said, patting her knee. "When I was in my fifth year here, I was convinced that a…a very close friend of mine was in danger. I led your mother, your aunt and uncle, Professor Longbottom, and if you remember Luna Scamander, the woman we gave you your middle name for, on a wild goose chase all the way to the Ministry of Magic. I led them right into a trap, just like this dark wizard led you into a trap. I got someone killed because I wanted to act. I could've gotten us all killed. If anything, I'm proud of you for doing a lot better than I did, when you're only a first-year to boot."

Lily shook her head as tears escaped her eyes, forging little salty rivers down her cheeks. "You said to be careful and I wasn't."

"But you were brave, and you kept your head under pressure," Harry said. He grabbed her hand, holding it tight, and added, "We can't ever be safe all the time. Lord Voldemort broke into the castle my first year. A basilisk attacked my second. Hogwarts isn't a place where only good things happen. It's unpredictable and wild and happy and sad and crazy and cozy. That's all the world is, Lily. Things happen that we can't control. What we _can_ do is choose which road to go down when we're given the choice."

"But I'm not brave!" Lily cried. "I'm scared, Dad. The man – the one we fought – he wanted to kill me. He knows who I am. When he escaped, he said…he told me that we'd speak again, and I know what he can do."

Harry turned the very corner of his mouth up in a smile and rubbed his thumb over the top of Lily's hand. "Well, you're not alone, at least."

"Dad, you've fought everyone. You're famous. You don't get scared."

"I do," he said. "I'm scared because I watch my kids go off to Hogwarts every year, knowing I can't always keep them safe, and I don't always know what I should do. I hate feeling helpless. That's what makes me feel afraid. But when I'm at my worst, I see how strong you really are. You give me the courage to keep going."

Lily couldn't hold back her tears now. She leaned over into Harry's arms and cried as he rubbed her hair, a gentle, secure, strong thing with just enough confidence in it that made her feel at home in this castle, this place that had been unpredictable and wild and happy and sad and all the things that must have built Hogwarts so many hundreds of years ago.

A loud sneeze interrupted their embrace. Lily bolted back into her bed and away from her father, looking across the way as Logan shifted under his sheets. He yawned in the most artificial fashion possible, opened his eyes, and said, "I didn't hear – I mean, good morning."

Harry laughed, patted Lily's hand, stood up, and appraised Logan. After a moment he said, "Are you Logan?"

Logan looked meek. He set his jaw and nodded his head ever so slightly.

"Huh," said Harry. "Thought about becoming an Auror one day?"

He grinned and clapped Logan on the shoulder before walking out of the room. Logan rubbed his shoulder as if it were a holy site, staring slack-jawed out the door before eying Lily and saying, "For being famous, your dad's pretty cool."

"Yeah," Lily said, allowing herself the slightest smile she could muster, "he's a good dad."

Healer Justman released them two days later, and the entire school knew a fight had gone down around the boathouse. The first-years bombarded Lily and Logan with questions in the Ravenclaw common room, during meals, and even in classes when teachers weren't paying attention. To Lily's relief, Wayne Torres acted as a sort of shield between them, listening to the tidbits they had to say and turning them into wild stories that entertained his audiences and took the spotlight away for a few blissful minutes. Even Lily's family hungered for more: James and Rose demanded to know what had happened, spitting curses at the Hogwarts establishment for letting Lily run headlong into trouble at every opportunity, while Al looked on as she talked with a sort of sad, pitying expression that made her want to vomit. Only Hugo seemed to understand what she felt, even if he didn't talk all that much whenever she felt the need to vent.

Focusing on classes and school and the normal everyday grind of Hogwarts felt otherworldly. After fighting Sion and escaping from the wendigo, Lily felt like an alien in the halls. Questions still lingered in Lily's head, however. In search of answers, or at least relief, she left Ravenclaw Tower early on her first Friday night since being released from the hospital ward and headed up to the Astronomy Tower.

Professor Vos's office door was open when she arrived at the tower loft. When Lily stepped in, Vos sat crouched in front of his fireplace, twirling his dagger in his hands, his face steady and serious.

"Where'd you get a dungbomb?" he asked before she had a chance to speak.

Lily paused. "What?"

"I talked with Logan earlier in the week. He tells me you saved his life with some quick thinking and a little creativity," said Vos, still staring into the fire. The flames danced off his eyes, dark and foreboding. "Sounds like Rowena Ravenclaw would be proud to know one of her students had that kind of wit in a crisis situation."

"It was dumb luck," Lily murmured.

Vos chuckled. "Well, if you have luck to spare, feel free to share. I keep wondering when I'm going to get lucky, and I've been waiting for a long while."

He got up and walked behind his desk, setting his dagger back in its place under the red and green flag and taking a seat. "Alright, I know the first question. 'Jurre, what in the bloody hell are you keeping under our school?'"

"That wasn't my first question."

"Well, it's my first answer. I know what it looks like – a monster – but it's anything but that," he said. He pulled open a drawer, hoisted a bottle full of translucent brown drink, uncorked it, and said, "You know what, I'm cancelling class. Stay as long as you want. I had a hell of a time with the fourth-years right before you showed up, and I'm just done for the week."

Rather than pouring a glass, Vos drank straight from the bottle. "That monster is a library."

Lily gave him a wry look. "A library with tentacles and two dozen eyes?"

"Ya, ya, lekker, huh?" Vos said, grinning. "I told you a time ago that I'd tackled some pretty strange stuff during my time in Germany. I was alongside Sion, the woman I mentioned, Alanis Fell, and our mentor – the same mentor who I'm guessing tasked Sion with coming after me here in the first place. We're not on speaking terms, if you can imagine. Shocking. Anyway, we did a whole lot of tests on some crazy stuff. Space. Matter. Time, which led to discoveries on how to speed up and slow time, if you paid attention to that globe Sion had that you cleverly destroyed. That was something we invented. Good going on that, by the way."

"I was just…I didn't know what was going to happen."

"Ya, humility and all that. Anyway, I told you we went to Malta and discovered something in a very ancient magical ruin, dating thousands and thousands of years ago."

"You discovered _that_?"

Vos frowned at his bottle. "No, we discovered that's parent. That's a baby."

" _Baby?_ "

"Mm. Anyway, when…when you first shot at Sion and everything went to hell, when I saw you collapse in front of that thing on the ground – you saw something in your head, didn't you? Felt something? An epiphany, almost?"

Lily clammed up. _Saw_ was a drastic understatement. Experienced? Felt? She didn't know how to describe the frenzied rush that had blasted her mind with a wave of sensory input, as if the entire world had threatened to jump into her mind all at once.

"That's its defense mechanism," Vos explained. "We have wands, that beast Sion brought, the wendigo, it has claws and horns. What I brought here to Hogwarts is a living archive. It contains a piece of the memories and experiences of hundreds, maybe even thousands, of ancient wizards and witches who millennia ago created its parent, a much larger and more powerful magical creature that I left behind in Germany. They're not natural. Manmade. Whatever the wizarding equivalent of bioengineering is. Essentially, it's one large brain that stores information and wisdom and knowledge for all time, and when threatened, it creates a magical connection – like Legilimancy, if you're familiar with that branch of magic – that dumps a part of that knowledge out all at once into an enemy's mind. It drives them insane as their brain attempts to process what it can't. It's a weaponized version of your mind trying to divide by zero."

Lily's brain hurt trying to understand what Vos had said, let alone what he _meant_ – and maybe that was the point. "So what I saw…"

"You saw a glimpse of the whispers and echoes of a thousand witches and wizards who have been dead a long, long time," finished Vos. "That thing is the reason I even came to Hogwarts."

"What? Why?"

"I told you about how I grew up, Lily," Vos said. "I was born in shite. I grew up in shite. I don't intend to die in a world like that. I want to create a world of equal opportunity, where we don't discriminate on things like we did back home in South Africa, skin color, location, heritage, or on what we discriminate on in the wizarding world – magical birth, heritage, strength. Equality means we all have the opportunity to succeed, to pursue dreams, even to wield magic."

Lily felt a chill run up her spine. "In ancient history, wizards and witches lived out in the open. See Ancient Egypt and Sumeria," Vos went on. "They knew great things, things that have been lost to time and history's destructive march. I want to know what they did. I can't help bring about a better world without gaining insight first. Wisdom. Knowledge. Think, Lily, these are things your house prides. _Learning_. That's what Hogwarts is all about. I brought my creature here to grow in safety, away from the poaching of people like Sion and my mentor, and to thrive with all the magic in the air. And while I teach, I can also learn."

Swallowing hard, Lily asked, "What was that place down below? All those tunnels?"

"Oh," Vos said, snorting, "nothing much all that interesting. Back when the founders made Hogwarts, they lived in a violent time. That's an escape route out of the castle onto the grounds. Basically an underground labyrinth. Whoever knew the right way out could escape invaders, while those behind them would get lost in the tunnels. I only used it because it was hidden away, plus because my creature needs to stay in the water most of the time, and there's an underground cave down there that connects to the lake. It's convenient and doesn't hurt anyone."

"But back when Hugo, Scorpius and I were in the dungeons, I saw the Headmaster – "

Vos gritted his teeth and swirled around the contents of his bottle. "Ah, yah. John Maribor knows exactly what I'm doing and approves of it."

"Why?"

"Because he's going to be Minister of Magic one day. Come on, Lily, you haven't started to figure out that man? Maribor is an extremely powerful wizard who is good to have on your side and bad to fight against, as Sion found out. He prides strength and organization, two things the Ministry's lacking these days, and he despises them for it. The community loves him, on the other hand. He wants every advantage he can get, and he knows a game-changer when he sees one. Back when your father saved the world and all, the Ministry collapsed because it denied Voldemort's return and any way it could slow him down or stop him. The Headmaster's not that stupid."

Lily swallowed and wrung her hands. Vos was a persuasive man, she gave him that. She'd come in with questions about him, thinking he had bad intent, but now eased up. Still she wanted to know what came next: Was Sion coming after them? Was this… _mentor_ of Vos's going to show up? Was this the whole wizarding war against Voldemort returning in a new fashion?

She opened her mouth to speak, closed it, thought her words over carefully, and said, "So what now?"

"Well," Vos said, clinking his bottle against his desk, his movements now exaggerated and growing wobbly, "I told you Sion holds grudges. You saw that in action against me. I won't lie: He'll have one against both you and Logan."

"Why? We didn't – "

"This is not a rational man we're talking about, Lily. He lives to fight. He has one purpose in this world, and this pleasing the man he sees as a father…with a dose of revenge karma thrown in."

The fireplace was doing a bad job warming Lily up. "So there's someone else? Some other dark wizard?"

"I don't want to describe our mentor. I can't, anyway. He's beyond description," Vos mused, his expression grim. "Shifting gears: Can you tell me something? Sion said he knew you. How's that?"

Lily didn't want to talk about the past year's nasty events, but it all came out of her. She spilled her guts about Grace, about loneliness, about falling for the first person to show her compassion and a listening ear, even if it was a ghost, a deception – and then a letter, one that asked for her help, one that counted on her jumping to act to do a good deed and help save the day, only for it all to be a ruse.

Vos stayed quiet until she was done, nodding, drinking, closing his eyes here and there. "I almost admire him," he said when she'd finished.

"What?"

"Sion. He had the patience to wait an entire year, to try and try and not give up until he found a way in," Vos said. "In a better person, that diligence is a wonderful trait. In a crazy man, well…you saw. Don't beat yourself up over it, Lily. You were great down there. You handled yourself like a fully-grown witch, not a first-year. But enough about all this depressing talk. It's late, you probably want to sleep, and like hell I'm having class when I'm getting drunk."

He slammed his bottle on the table, got up and stretched. As Lily rose to leave, Vos picked up his wand and said, "Oh, one more thing. I heard from the Headmaster that they're moving everyone sick to St. Mungo's this weekend."

Lily felt her stomach drop. "What? Natalie and all them – they're going to be alright, right?"

"Yah, it's just a precaution. They can treat them better there. But when Natalie went down the second time, I caught you in the middle of doing your best to stun her," he said, flicking his wand in the air. "You got the incantation right, but the wand all wrong. It's just a quick slash up, down, or to the side, but the key thing is to move your arm. Watch – _Stupefy!_ "

Vos fired a jet of red light into the wall, throwing up sparks as the magic hit the wood and disappeared. "You try it."

Lily pulled out her wand, aimed at the same wall, swallowed, and yelled, " _Stupefy!_ "

Red sparks dribbled out the end of her wand, arcing down and bouncing around the floor before burning out. "Work on it," sighed Vos. "Go get some sleep."

The final month of term passed quickly. Lily felt a knot in her stomach every time she woke up and saw Natalie's empty bed, envisioning her best friend alone and frightened in a sterile hospital far away from the familiar. If even her father could be afraid, however, surely Natalie could handle it. She'd handled it once.

Exams seemed like a petty obstacle in light of everything that had happened, and as the days turned hot and long, Lily felt strange – at peace, almost, accepting and putting everything past her. She couldn't change all that now. She could only act on whatever came ahead, dark wizards or not.

In spite of all the troubles of the past year, Lily felt a profound sense of longing when the term came to an end. Boarding the Hogwarts Express felt like leaving behind a place she'd just begun to explore, somewhere that had challenged her, thrown her to the dogs, made her cry and hurt and wail before, at the end of all things, opening its arms for her. She'd braved the castle's tests and come out alive.

She bumped into Al on the train as it pulled away from Hogsmeade. Logan and Wayne beckoned her into their cabin, but she shooed them just long enough to give her brother some time. He didn't say anything at first as the end of the station platform brushed past the train, the green Scottish countryside looming ahead, the Black Lake and the castle dwindling behind. Al put his hands on Lily's arms, smiled, and said, "I think you grew a bit. This shirt's looking small."

"A little bit," said Lily.

"You ready to go home?" said Al, looking her up and down, his expression serious. "First year's tough to leave. I know things have been hard on you. All the bad things in the world decided to hit you this year. From – "

"Al, stop, you sound like Dad."

He laughed and looked away. "Yeah, well. Yeah. I could use a summer at least. We can visit the people at St. Mungo's. They'll be fine. Just a little time off'll be nice."

"A little bit," repeated Lily, smiling brighter now. "Then we'll come back."

"Then we'll come back," said Al. "Then we'll come back."


	26. BEGIN BOOK 2

_**Welcome back awesome readers/followers/reviewers – here we go with Book 2 of**_ **Whispers of the Dead Lords** _ **. We jump ahead a year to the summer before Lily's third year at Hogwarts, on the cusp of a term filled with friendships and animosity, budding feelings, otherworldly challenges, a pitched battle, and a fearsome foe at the heart of a plan to rip the heart out of Hogwarts.**_

 _ **Big shout-out to mywildcharmsforyou and HoneydukeHPlover for the awesome reviews last chapter – I'm always happy to hear feedback, be it positive or the kind that tells me I need to improve and/or missed something, so don't feel shy to chime in! Our prologue for Book 2 kicks off nearly twenty years in the past, a mere five years after the Battle of Hogwarts and Voldemort's downfall, as the Dark Lord's final supporters, on the run and directionless, stumble into a dangerous situation…**_

* * *

 **Book 2**

* * *

 **December 8, 2003**

 **The Reinhardswald, Germany**

"Then you tell me this, you troglodytes! You're – "

"Careful with the big words, Nott. Might sprain a vocal cord."

"Oh, piss off, mate. No, you answer me: You two drag me around for Merlin knows how long, convinced that the Dark Lord's just biding his time again, and _what have we seen? Nothing!_ Further, tell me this: How come you two got away from the battle at Hogwarts when no one else did? You run then, you run now, screams cowards to me!"

Antonin Dolohov swung around and roared, "Would you _shut up?!_ We've gone over this, Nott. That dwarf wizard hit me. Travers dragged me out. We tried to get Rabastan too, but no dice. He's in Azkaban now. Think of it: Last time Barty was out and about in time for the Dark Lord's return. That rat Wormtail, too. When he comes back again, and _he_ _will_ , we'll be here to support him. We'll be the loyal ones rewarded, not the sniveling worms locked up in prison and bowing down to Harry Potter's new order."

"Oh, that's a great theory. A great one. Only how are we supposed to be looking for the dark Lord when we're wandering aimlessly around the German wilderness?"

The tall, bearded, black-haired man walking alongside them, Travers, snorted, "Learn your place, Nott, you're dumb muscle."

"What was that about big words again?"

"What? Okay. I'm trying to picture the exact moment when you were conceived, but all I'm imagining is your mother and a troll – "

Dolohov pulled his wand and squinted into the wilderness ahead as his companions quarreled. He didn't trust them, of course: Once he'd been one of the Dark Lord's most trusted warriors, and he'd served loyally. He'd been happy enough with others like Yaxley and Rookwood, but they were locked away with the others who'd survived the battle five years before. Now only _he_ could call himself a true Death Eater, a competent, loyal one still awaiting their master's return. The Dark Lord would return. He always did.

The German forest in winter was a foreboding thing. Snow crunched under Dolohov's boots, catching on the end of his robe and blanketing the landscape in white. Spindly trees stuck up like toy soldiers from the snow cover, whistling in the harsh, gusty northern wind. It was the only sound out here, the lone snap to break the silence of the hibernating wood.

His beard itched, and Dolohov grumbled and scratched as hard as he could. He didn't mind the outdoors – not like prissy fools like that traitor and coward Lucius – but five years on the run, five years of being number one on the British Ministry of Magic's hit list, had taken its toll. He did his best to keep his hair and beard manageable, but there was no keeping away the dirt and the stench of living on the lam for so long. This was what it took to stay one step ahead of the Ministry and those damn Aurors, the men who had sunk to the level of calling Harry Potter one of their own now. Disgusting.

It would all pay off in the end, he told himself. When the Dark Lord rose again, he'd be rewarded. He'd usurp Lucius's precious manor, ask the Dark Lord to kill that turncoat himself – and how could he be refused such an honor? He was loyal, and moreover, he was _competent_. Hell, he'd kill Lucius _and_ that snobby brat of a son, maybe Narcissa too…although he might do something else with her first…

But something –

"Wands," snapped Dolohov, holding his out in front of him and pushing aside a clump of branches.

They'd pitched the tent and left it up ahead by the clearing, but Dolohov smelled smoke. Something was off. They certainly couldn't afford to lose the tent: Inside sat all their money, Galleons and Galleons they'd manage to put together through tireless work, along with all their possessions. It was hard enough staying on the run; doing so with nothing but their wand and the clothes on their backs would be insanity.

Dolohov saw something move in the clearing ahead. Breaking out in a run, he gritted his teeth, held aloft his wand, and sprinted ahead of Nott and Travers. The clearing broke ahead of him, a wide, white expanse of snow underneath matte gray clouds. It felt dead – even more so when Dolohov pulled to a stop and saw their tent in flame.

"No!" he shouted. "Wands! Eyes open!"

"Aurors!" Travers hissed on his heels. "They've found us!"

Nott sucked in a breath: "How? We haven't – "

"Quiet!"

Dolohov approached slowly, small step by small step, inching forward and keeping his head on a swivel. There was something off about all this. They'd fought the Aurors once before, emerging victorious after the idiots declared themselves and stood up for a fair fight. This was different, a smoking out that felt all wrong, completely _un-Auror_.

There – something moved behind the tent. Dolohov snapped his wand forward to cast a curse, but he stopped at the last moment. It wasn't a person. It wasn't alive at all: A shimmering, mint green ring of magical energy about the height of a full-grown man hung behind the burning tent. It surrounded a blank gray void that concealed anything within it besides golden strands of magic coursing inwards into a black singularity from the outer ring.

"What is that?" Nott barked, waving his wand at it as if he'd scare the ring away. "That some sort of weapon?"

Dolohov didn't answer. Something made him approach, made him want to touch it. He couldn't explain the compulsion, but it called to him with a power, a draw, a seduction…maybe it wasn't an Auror thing after all, but a weapon indeed, something they could use to hasten the Dark Lord's inevitable return, a magical coincidence that had occurred when he needed hope the most. Was this luck at work? Destiny?

The Death Eater reached out his wand. Closer, closer – then he touched the tip to the gray center of the ring.

A bright white light flashed from all directions. Dolohov groaned and stumbled back, propelled by some invisible force that knocked Travers and Nott to the ground. When he opened his eyes, something had changed. The sky was still gray, but it…it _moved_ , jittered, as if some unsettled god pounded on the doors of the sky, struggling to break free and reach the ground. The white snow bounced and waved, the ground solid yet made of pudding as it flowed around his feet in ludicrous twirls. The trees shook and quaked, and Dolohov gripped his forehead, fearing he'd quite suddenly gone insane. The wind had picked up, but it didn't whistle and howl, but _moaned_ , as if human voices groaned and cried through the air. The smell of something…something off, but natural…carried in the gusts, like old, rotting cabbage, and earth, and…

He at least had company in feeling all wrong: "What did you do?!" Nott spat, waving his wand around and grimacing. "What is this?"

"Stop, _stop!_ It's obviously not Aurors!" Dolohov shouted, struggling to stay on his feet in a world that had suddenly turned kaleidoscopic. It was as if he, Travers, and Nott were in a giant rain stick that some cosmic child had turned upside down, spilling the beads inside to rustle and jostle about in a chaotic symphony of noise and colors. "Just stop and try to make sense of it!"

"It makes perfect sense, Death Eater. You shite."

Dolohov winced, clutching his head and turning to the new voice. At the edge of a clearing stood a short but muscular woman, clearly not fazed by any of this, a wand in her hand and robes billowing about her. Her skin was pale, so pale she could have disappeared into the snow. Her curly hair was as black as the winter midnight, tossing and bouncing in the gusty wind, and her eyes were so richly blue that Dolohov thought they were purple at first sight.

" _Avada Kedavra!_ " roared Dolohov.

A green jet blasted out from his wand, but the woman sidestepped it with bored ease. "I heard you were more creative," she spat, not even raising her own wand to return fire. "You and that Yaxley sure made a mess of my whole family."

"The fuck are you?!" Dolohov snapped. He whipped his wand at her like a sword, throwing up a slash of purple fire that missed and cut a deep gash into a tree. "Are you one of those Prewett scum? Come over here and kill me then, if it's not against your precious morality!"

"Antonin," Travers said, pointing his wand towards the clearing as a man stepped out.

The new visitor wasn't anything like the woman. He was long, gangly, with a mess of neon, rainbow hair that waved in every direction with the wind. Unlike her statuesque figure, he was as fluid and as mobile as the jarring half-world they'd stepped into, unstable and erratic, licking his lips and flipping a long, wooden, knobbed staff over from hand to hand.

The man laughed, a cackling, high-pitched, animal-like bark, and jeered, "One, two, three, leave one for me, Alanis! The runty one. I'm feeling lazy."

Nott bristled. "Jurre!" the woman, Alanis, called out, never taking her eyes off of Dolohov. "Found 'em."

A hulking man with tanned skin and short-cropped hair stalked out of the woods beside her, his wand at the ready, his face serious and moody, the opposite of the gangly, wiry man's laughing, childlike expression. He had a rugged, tough, ripped look to him, the face of a man who had seen too many fights in his years.

"Shoulda stayed in Britain, Antonin Dolohov," Alanis hissed. "When I found out you were tromping around here, I wasn't going to give up until I put you down."

"What did you do to us?" Dolohov howled. "What is this place?"

The hulking man, Jurre, the woman had called him, sneered, "Don't worry about it, bru. Won't have to think about it for long."

"You Death Eaters think you're so grand. Strutting about, waging war, and now running around with your tails between your legs and thinking you can bring a dead man back to life," Alanis cackled. "Fine, join _Voldemort_."

"You don't say the Dark Lord's name, wench!" Travers snarled.

"I'll say whatever I damn well want!"

The woman slashed her wand and sent up a wave of telekinetic energy at the three Death Eaters. Dolohov made a vain attempt to block it before it struck him and sent him sprawling, crashing against a tree. He heard something snap as pain shot through his side. Travers crashed into a snow pile next to him, bounding to his feet, as Nott laid still nearby. His eyes were closed and his breaths were ragged, blood leaking out from around the back of his head where it'd connected with a jagged edge of a tree stump.

Travers attempted to fire a spell, but a cascade of blue lightning blasted him back into the tree line. "No, back off!" Alanis snarled. "Get back, Sion, this is _my_ family I'm avenging!"

"No. You won't, Alanis," said a low, gurgling, deep voice that to Dolohov seemed to come from everywhere at once, both inside his head and from the entire forest all at once. It was a voice like a river, rushing, flowing like the chaotic non-world the green ring had pulled them into, too strong to combat or even withstand as it cascaded all around Dolohov's mind. He gripped his head in pain, got to his knees, and waved his wand.

" _Avada Kedavra!_ "

A pale, almost gray, wrinkly hand reached out and caught his Killing Curse. Dolohov froze. _That is not possible_. The sight of the green jet disappearing into the hand, fading, warping and whisking away like smoke, drained all the fight out of him.

A man – _a man?_ – stepped into the clearing behind the three attackers. He, she, it, whatever, was both human and inhuman all at once, man, beast, and beyond, shorter than Jurre, taller than both the gangly man, Sion, and Alanis. His skin looked like a cadaver's, ashen and bunching up here and there in odd hills. His face was sunken, his eyes nothing but dead coals, his hair long since gone and his mouth permanently gaping in a mummified scowl. When he raised his hand and pointed at Dolohov with one spindly, almost skeletal finger, the digit quivered and wavered with the sky and the snow and the trees, all chaos, all a horrible trap Dolohov had led them into, a funnel of pain he didn't even understand. They weren't Aurors. He doubted these people cared about the Dark Lord's truths, or Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore's crimes.

He wondered if they cared at all about much of anything he could understand.

"Sir," pleaded Alanis, anger and bitterness still coursing through her words, "these people, they did things, _mutilated_ my family, other families in Britain, and – "

"That you concern yourself with petty revenge or fulfillment is an indictment of your mind," said that…that _voic_ e _._ Dolohov gritted his teeth and clamped his hands over his ears. Travers rolled around in the snow, writhing, clutching his head and tearing at his scalp. "These men are products of the cruel nature we must escape. They obsess over power and hierarchy and blood purity and other frauds of the flesh. They do not even know where they are now. Do you want your mind trapped in infancy?"

"No, but – "

The gray man walked towards his Dolohov. He tried to get to his feet, tried to fight one last time, failed and slipped into the snow. Everything felt cold. "We do not need revenge or justice, Alanis. We only need eyes and whispers, and these three men have seen and heard much. You may leave. Vos, Sion, you may also leave."

Dolohov tried to crawl away, a last-ditch effort to save himself. Forget Travers, forget Nott, forget _the Dark Lord_ even, he wanted to live. He didn't want to die in some forgotten dump on the continent, cowering at the feet of something monstrous.

An invisible sledgehammer slammed into the small of his back, pinning him to the ground. Dolohov reached for his wand, but as he grabbed it, the ten-inch, elm-and-dragon heartstring weapon dissolved into powder. He gaped, his mouth quivering like the world around him. The gray hand came down again, level with his face, as that horrible, _horrible_ voice gurgled, "Life and death are only in your imagination, Antonin. A world of black and white is a fairy tale."

Worms – _tendrils_ – black, wiry, and slimy burst out of the ashen man's gray hand and enveloped Dolohov's face. He screamed as his eyes failed him and his mind exploded, filled with sights, colors, sounds, smells, tastes, the whole world flooding his head in a single instant before a dull gray nothingness replaced it.

Snow settled on the winter landscape. Clouds watched overhead, passive, content. The green magical ring collapsed, pulling the gray void along with it into nothingness as Antonin Dolohov's body convulsed deep in the forest, his dead Dark Lord never knowing his fate. His eyes stared wide and unmoving, his breath and heart frozen, the man caught between joyous life and blissful death.

From the tree line reached a long, thick, ropy black tentacle, wrapping around Dolohov's legs and yanking him towards the deep forest. From the trees something cried, growled, moaned, and a hundred eyes looked on as the dead-yet-not-dead Death Eater faded.

* * *

 **July 8, 2021**

 **Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry**

 _Yesterday's stunning vote for Britain's new Minister for Magic has been met with cautious enthusiasm across wizarding Britain. While many prominent members of the community expected reigning Hogwarts School Headmaster John Maribor to sweep an easy vote following June's unforeseen resignation of former Minister Kingsley Shacklebolt, former Gringotts Bank chief magical administrator Jeffrey Drake eked out a majority of votes to win the election. Former Minister Shacklebolt has expressed his intent to stay on in an advisory capacity for the new Minister for no longer than six months to ease the transition._

 _The announcement was met with enthusiasm from notable families across the country, including the famous Weasley family. Percy Weasley, head of the Ministry's Department of Magical Transportation, hailed the election as, "A key to securing wizard-goblin friendship for decades to come and reinforcing the close ties between Gringotts and wizarding Britain." Hogwarts Governing Board member Draco Malfoy also applauded the move, adding, "Minister Drake's experience with Gringotts, both in Britain and abroad, will shore up the bleeding economic plight of the fat Ministry, shave off unneeded programs and burdens, and bring about an era of fiscal and moral responsibility not seen for quite some time."_

 _Not all prominent community members reacted with such enthusiasm. Department of Magical Law Enforcement chief international counselor Hermione Weasley countered Percy Weasley's opinion, stating, "The pandering of the Ministry vote to Gringotts's Galleons and biases will only alienate the precious reconciliations the wizarding world has made with traditionally oppressed classes, including Muggle-born witches and wizards and magical beings. It will be up to Minister Drake to prove himself above the traditionally ruthless mores of Gringotts and its administrators to ensure our era of peace and unprecedented equality continues and does not fall victim to mere Galleons and statistics."_

 _No word from Maribor, who reportedly congratulated Drake -_

"Thieves," spat John Maribor, tossing aside the _Daily Prophet_ into the fireplace of his office. "Buying their titles now. They don't even have the honor to hide it."

His office was spartan. Albus Dumbledore's Pensieve still stood in an alcove, but the magical tools and trinkets were gone, replaced by a cleanliness and order that befit a Headmaster who prided staying on top of everything. The many portraits of past Headmasters stared down at him as one laughed, an old bearded man who shook as he cackled, "You expect much different? Ha!"

"It's degeneracy," Maribor said with a touch of bitterness, staring into the fireplace as the newspaper burned.

A soft cough commanded his attention: From the far side of the Headmaster's Office, Albus Dumbledore put a finger to his chin as if deep in thought, sitting back in the chair of his portrait, relaxed, self-assured. "It is my experience that the Ministry is more concerned with keeping their jobs that doing any real good. If you are set on helping people, I would imagine you are in exactly the right office, John."

Maribor sighed. It was hard arguing with Albus Dumbledore. Even if he wanted to make a point, he couldn't so much as get the smallest rise out of the man - and that was just his portrait. "As long as I have this office, maybe."

"As long as there are good people at Hogwarts who still believe in their Headmaster, this is your office. I can't recall you resigning, after all."

"I don't think it's that simple anymore," Maribor replied. He stared into the flames, watched the _Prophet_ burn, and clenched his fist.


	27. Sunsets in Summer

_**Thanks to Mermaid1108 and mywildcharmsforyou for the reviews since the last update; big shout out! Now I attempt to ease into the story a little bit more here in chapter 2, with less dark wizards getting mind-blasted and more Potter-Weasley family time. Shorter chapter than usual; setting the stage to an extent.**_

* * *

 _All magic leaves traces to a degree. Powerful magic leaves echoes that last through time, a well-studied phenomenon most evident today in two locations: At Hogwarts School in Scotland given the outpouring of magic during the climactic fight against the Dark Lord Voldemort during the Second Wizarding War, and at the site of the legendary duel between Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindewald._

 _Less studied by global wizarding institutions is the tendency for powerful conduits of magic to retain such magical traces, with the most notable traces being actual wizards and witches themselves. A controversial subject, magical archaeologists have had some success studying magical traces remaining within the mummified remains of ancient Egyptian and Aztec sorcerers and sorceresses._

 _Controversy first brewed during the post-Grindelwald years over the practice of examining the remains of ancient wizards and witches, with objectors calling the studies a "violation of the rights of the dead to rest in peace." Notably, a number of prominent ghosts have supported studying the traces of magic left behind in the bodies of powerful magicians of the past, hoping such academic interest could ease biases against ghosts worldwide._

"You really like this book Aunt Hermione gave you."

Lily nodded. She laid out on her stomach upon a couch in her family's den, one leg idly kicking a cushion, the other dangling down to the floor, her big toe resting on the hardwood. It _was_ a better read than opting for her third-year textbooks that piled up in a half-doughnut around her trunk in her bedroom. Adding Arithmancy and Ancient Runes to her schedule only made Lily's workload for the coming year seem even more daunting, particularly after a sleepy second year at Hogwarts, a year where the most exciting thing had been watching an actual full season of Quidditch. No mysterious illnesses. No deceiving, fake ghosts. No frantic fights in the bowels of an ancient castle escape route. Just school.

It was a strange feeling, relaxing in the summer before her third year like any other normal, thirteen year-old Hogwarts student in mid-July. It wasn't that Lily was tossing in turning over anticipation to return to school after just a month at home, nor an eagerness to see her friends after the nice change of having none of them venture into the hospital ward all year long during their second year. Even the prospect of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team undergoing a full-scale rebuilding in the coming year, opening up a shot for her to try out, didn't keep her up at night.

No, it was something else, a more primal need. Lily was hungry. At least, some part of her was hungry, hungry to know…more. It was a gnawing that had taken root and birthed in her mind during the summer after her chaotic first year at Hogwarts, and its growth had never slowed down. She'd tasted insight for the briefest of flashes down in the castle's depths and feared it at the time. Now that memory was both haunting and tempting, the source of her nightmares and the spring that fueled her dreams.

If satisfying that urge meant reading Hermione's recommendations during the summer and blowing off James's repeated requests to go outside and practice Quidditch, so be it.

Her dad rested his arms on the couch back, looked over shoulder at the book, and said, "Learn anything good?"

"What does it mean when it says that magic leaves traces?" Lily asked, pointing to a passage in the book.

Harry opened his mouth to answer, stopped agape to search for the right explanation, and said, "You know, I'm not entirely clear on that. A long time ago – a long, long time ago – someone glossed over it to me once. The way I understand it, when someone uses magic on anything, mostly if it's real strong magic, dark magic in particular, it leaves behind like a…an echo. Or a like a scar. Frankly, sweetie, the man who I first heard that phrase from was Albus Dumbledore, and I'm still not sure I understand half of what he told me."

Lily frowned and stared at the words on the page. She wished he knew more, but at least he was honest and open with her. "But it says here that people leave traces of magic, too. So, like…like bodies, or is it more like memories? I mean if Albus Dumbledore was an Egyptian mummy, would he still have magic around him, or – "

"What book is this?" Harry asked, frowning and pulling it away from his daughter. He wrinkled his brow as he flicked through a few pages before turning it over to examine the purple-and-blue leather cover. "' _Puzzles of the Past: The Greatest Magical Discoveries Waiting to be Made_.' Oh, this sounds like a Hermione special. This is pretty high-level reading, Lily."

"I like it. Can I have the book back?"

Harry looked at it one more time, shrugged, and tossed it in a gentle arc to her. "Anyway, I don't know the answer to some of this stuff, Lily. Your aunt will be over with your uncle and cousins in a couple hours for supper. Ask her about it. She knows everything anyway."

Ottery St. Catchpole was lovely under the waning afternoon sun, the first hints of yellow glaze creeping up along the western horizon. The Potter house was a much more normal-looking building in Lily's eyes, at least compared to the house her grandparents lived in across the fields a kilometer away. Simple, three stories, with wide windows that let in plenty of light on long summer days, it was cozy and relaxing, a place Lily was happy to call home.

She knew others weren't so lucky. A passing thought of Natalie returning from winter break in each of the last two years with purplish bruises on her forehead and around her eyes made her skin crawl. Lily was just happy her friend was in one piece these days, her smile still showing through despite the scarring on her neck and chin that refused to submit to any and all treatment.

All manner of delicacies and kitchenware covered a long wooden table out on the green grass. Cauliflower cheese, cottage pie, potted shrimp, and Lily's favorite steak and oyster pie dwindled down as her family, her uncle Ron and aunt Hermione, and Rose and Hugo sat about eating, talking, laughing, and living under the gentle, glowing summer sky. Lily felt caught up in the conversation like a tumbling fish in whitewater, drunk on the warm feelings of her family together.

"OWLs really aren't that bad," Ron was in the midst of saying to Al on Lily's left, his mouth full of sausage. "I mean, they're horrible, just awful really, a bloody boatload of studying, all your free time gone. Eventually you end up staying up so long revising that you wonder what the world record for consecutive hours awake is, and if you'll beat it today or tomorrow. So not bad, but really just torturous."

To Al's credit, he hardly batted an eyelash in the face of the reality of being a fifth-year at Hogwarts. Ginny snorted: "Ron, I wonder what growing up with someone like you must have been like. Probably almost as awful as taking the OWLs."

"I'm really just an unwilling victim," Ron said, shrugging and mumbling through another mouthful. "I hear my sister is absolutely bonkers though, so try asking her."

"I can still hex you. Al, want to see little bats flying out of your uncle's nose?"

"Still dreaming of when you did that to Malfoy back in fifth year," said Ron, drawing up his eyes dreamily for effect. "Your crowning moment of glory, Ginny."

The Malfoy family was a popular topic around the table. Across from Lily, Rose berated her brother: "Hugo, Scorpius is dumb. The d-u-m kind of dumb. And he's a colossal git. How are you two still friends?"

"He's not dumb, he's a pretty brilliant guy, really," Hugo defended his friend, sticking out his jaw at his older sister. "He just acts like…well, kind of git-ish…towards people we don't know well."

"Oh, come off it. He's taking you for a ride."

"Rose, half the people don't like him just because of his family name. That's not even fair. You'd be a git too if everyone jumped down your throat all the time."

Rose snorted and waved him away. "Right. So it's all hunky-dory because you two get in huge trouble together your first year for explor – " She stopped in mid-sentence, glancing up at Lily for a moment before focusing intently on her dinner and finishing, "His father's a school governor, Hugo, I don't buy the everyone-hates-me angle."

Lily swallowed and looked away. The subject of what had happened beneath Hogwarts was one her cousins rarely broached. Privately, Lily wondered whether Hermione had told them to stay away from asking her questions about it in the midst of the flurry of chatter around the end of her first year. It _was_ less questions to answer, at least – and Lily didn't know if she could give any good answers about every little detail about that harrowing morning, anyway. How could she expect Rose and Hugo to believe it all when she herself still had a hard time wrapping her head around everything?

 _Past is the past. Don't dwell on it_ , her mother had told her. Lily shook her head and stabbed her pie with a vigorous jab of her fork.

To the right of the table, Hermione and Harry were busy bouncing conflicting opinions off of James in regards to his post-Hogwarts future. "James, you cannot honestly be seriously considering that," Hermione implored, holding up her fork like she might attack him. "Yes, you're good at Quidditch, but…please, it's a game. A year from now you're starting a _career_. Think about your potential for twenty or thirty years down the road, when you have your own family."

James shrugged, unperturbed by Hermione's push. "I just want to do what I'll be happy doing."

"Well, _yes_ , but you have to think in the long-term, too!"

"'Be happy' sounds like a pretty swell plan to me," said Harry through a mouthful of mash. "Besides, I think there's this one person at the other end of the table who did Quidditch well…"

"Harry, you're supposed to be on my side, here. You men and your sports! Have you even looked into a lot of other things, James?"

He shrugged. "Sorta."

"I mean, there's the Ministry. Your Dad and I do fine there. There's the Aurors, you're good at Defense Against the Dark Arts. There's International Magical Cooperation if you want to travel and see things. There's Obliviator Headquarters," Hermione went on. She stopped suddenly, her expression growing dark. "Well, I mean, it _was_ all swell at the Ministry. I don't even know now that we're all looking up to some _banker_ as our new Minister."

"Is the new Minister that bad?" Lily piped up, dipping a foot into a conversation at last.

Hermione scowled. "He _acts_ all pleasant and charming in person whenever I've talked with him, but in a smarmy and morally superior way. He's greasy and insincere. And we all _know_ how his tenure at Gringotts went. Cost-cutting everywhere, shutting out everyone who didn't pay up, and practically dividing the place in two, with one camp that loved him for his 'efficiency' and the other growing so mad they're publicly applauding that Alanis Fell woman."

Lily bit her lip to hold back a cry of surprise. "The, uh, who woman?" she asked, feigning innocence. Lily did not forget her conversations with Professor Vos, and the last thing she wanted to do was correct her aunt on something like this.

"This anarchist-sounding woman who keeps telling people what they want to hear," Hermione said with a touch of bitterness. "I don't know where she came from, but it's just one more problem on the slate. You should try for the Ministry, Lily. We need people with brains, because most everyone else is lacking in that department these days."

Harry laughed, "Hermione, are you just going to wave your wand and make Lily your apprentice?"

"Well, she has a say in it. Come in with your dad and me to work on Monday, Lily. You can see all the problems first-hand."

"Wait, hold on, that's probably a few steps too far, too fast," Harry began.

"Sure, alright," said Lily before he could countermand Hermione. "That sounds great."

Hermione gave Harry a triumphant smile. _Well_ , Lily thought, _if I want to know more about…well, everything…I can't just sit around and learn from books_.


	28. The Air of Suspicion

_**Thank you for all these recent great reviews, mywildcharmsforyou; you are awesome! I do update pretty quickly – while I'm likely costing myself followers and readers, I like the challenge of producing a complex story and layered characters over a short period of time. Why not Scorpius joining Lily in the catacombs? To use a parallel, imagine how long it took for Luna and/or Ginny to become major players in HP – book 5, really. Sometimes people need time before they come together, which makes them all the stronger for it. As for Logan, he – along several other of the student OCs, like Natalie – has a major role to play ahead. Starting in Book 2, even.**_

 _ **I'm glad you find Sion sympathetic; one thing I want is to blur the lines between good and evil, where everyone has shades of both sides – even Lily being capable of flirting with the darkness. Always found Voldemort a bit boring, personally. Regarding what happened to the beast…hmm, what indeed?**_

 _ **Off we go with chapter 3 here, as bit by bit we piece together a picture of the new era of wizarding Britain beyond Hogwarts…**_

"Lily, time to get up. Come on, it's seven already. Your clothes are on your chair and Dad's making breakfast. Come on. Up."

Lily rubbed her eyes, yawned, and pulled her bed covers over her eyes. "'S too early, Mum."

"You have to be there in an hour, sweetie. Up," Ginny said, pulling the covers off of her daughter. "Your aunt's not going to let you wiggle out of it now that you agreed. Sorry. Clean up after your owl, too; it's making a huge mess again."

Reaching for her covers again as soon as her mum left the room, Lily heard a snapping and tearing sound coming from her windowsill. She bolted out of bed as a large, brown, hawkish great horned owl perched on the edge of the sill, tearing apart something furry and bloody, littering the bedroom floor with blood splatter and fuzz.

"Andy, no!" Lily cried. She leapt up, grabbed her wand, and poked the mangled half-carcass out the window. Her owl gaped at her, looking furious before turning around and crouching down, watching its dinner on the ground below.

Wiping her wand on her dirty clothes from the day before she'd left on her floor, Lily scowled at her owl: "Why can't you eat something nice, like mice? Why do you have to destroy everything?" She was convinced she'd gotten the world's least considerate owl – and the one with the worst name. _Andronicus_. It sounded like some ancient Greek or Roman wizard she'd read about in Bathilda Bagshot's sleepy writing, not the name for a bird that found it hilarious to deliver mail alongside half-devoured rabbit bits.

Getting ready was the first frustrations of her impromptu Ministry field trip. The blue blouse Ginny had laid out felt weird, her black pants felt too tight around her waist, and Lily had so much trouble getting her hair to cooperate that she threw up her hands and tied it back in her usual ponytail, abandoning all hope of trying for something nice. To make matters worse, she tromped back into her bedroom for her wand just to find Andy perched on the windowsill with the freshly-recovered rabbit carcass, looking immensely smug about his avian rebellion, his yellow eyes lit up as if to say _go ahead, call the Aurors._

"Mum's gonna smack you," Lily grumbled.

Al was already awake and digging through a plateful of eggs in the cozy but cluttered kitchen by the time Lily made it down. He'd sprung up since his third year: At almost fifteen, Al was the same height as James now and still growing, his boyish, chubby cheeks gone and replaced with a lean, gaunt look that made him a near-carbon copy of Harry. He raised an eyebrow as Lily slumped into a chair and said, "Where's my sister?"

"What?" she said, digging her elbows onto the table and pawing through her own plate.

He sighed. "I was making a joke. You look mature, sis."

"That's a really awkward compliment," Lily groused. _Too early._

She didn't get five minutes of peace before Hermione burst through the front door, looking less than thrilled about a new work week. "There you are, Lily. Are you ready? Harry, Harry, come on. It's time to go."

"We running late for something I missed?" Harry said from in front of a stove and beside a pile of pots and pans, magically held up in a single tower. "I've had nothing to do at work since the new guy took over."

"I want to talk to some of your Aurors. Did you read the paper this morning?"

"No, but –"

"Fine, come on. Oh, Lily – come on. We should get going."

Confused by her aunt's sudden hurry, Lily asked, "Are we flying or something?"

"No, that's too slow. Come hold my hand."

"What? Why are – "

Hermione reached out and grabbed her hand instead. Lily hardly had time to protest before she felt herself taken off her feet, the world warping and twisting around her, everything feeling like she was squeezed through some tiny pipe just too small around to fit her. Black and green ribbons swirled around and past her, her stomach lurching and turning until her feet hit hard stone. Lily keeled over and gripped her knees, staring down at obsidian tiles as she held back threats of vomiting.

"See? That was real quick," Hermione said as Harry popped out of thin air next to them.

He frowned at her and complained, "Hermione, really? You can at least tell me if Apparating is part of your showing my daughter around."

"Harry, please, you were fighting Dementors at that age. She's handling it fine; see, she hasn't even thrown up."

Lily thought that was assuming too much. Her stomach threatened to jump straight out of her mouth, and it was only by closing her eyes that she resisted the urge to puke all over the floor. When she looked up she gasped, losing all her concentration and nearly vomiting before bending low once more. A high ceiling of bronze and black stone rose high overhead. Torches lined the walls, the hall broad enough to fit a dozen and a half people abreast with room to spare. A great foyer opened up before them, lined with alcoves that glowed with green fire from time to time, spitting forth wizards and witches traveling in via the Floo Network. In the atrium, a great statue hung above a shallow pool of water. Stone effigies of a wizard, a witch, a centaur, and a merman all reached out to grab a star hanging above a vertical stone wand at the center of the pool, the five points of the star spurting water in long arcs to the edges of the pools. The statue people looked inspired, as if ready to act and jump out of their stone and into action, all four on equal footing. Around the circular base of the foundation read the inscription _Unity Defeats Adversity_.

It would have been more impressive had Lily not been trying to hold back her urge to barf.

Wizards and witches crowded the atrium and the long hall. They were short and tall, dressed like Brits and adorned with all manner of strange garb, colorful and plain, grousing in English and bantering in foreign languages Lily couldn't hope to understand. It was a madhouse, an organized chaos that eluded her.

"I have to talk to some people," Hermione said, hurrying into the crowd without taking a second to explain. "I'll be back in a bit. Harry, stick with her."

Harry raised his hands in confusion as she disappeared into the crowd. He sighed, turned to his daughter, and said, "You think this is bad. I had to go to school with her. Imagine a normal day when suddenly Hermione gets a brilliant idea, and then it's off to the library. I don't even know why I'm surprised anymore. Come on, we need to get you a guest badge."

Five minutes later Lily pawed a white, circular sticker on her chest that read _Lily Potter – student tourist_. The crowds had only grown since they'd first arrived, and she stuck as close to her father as possible to avoid getting swept up in the rush. She felt like a salmon in a river, caught between the flow of the water and the rush of other fish all swarming this way and that, almost mindless in the traffic.

"Listen," Harry said, pulling her out of the way of a trio of burly, silver-haired wizards arguing in Russian, "I think your aunt _wanted_ to show you around, but to be honest, her office is pretty boring. Want to see where I work?"

"Yeah!" Lily said a little too loud, drawing suspicious looks from the Russian wizards. "I mean, if that's alright. I don't want to…it's busy."

He waved off her concern. "Nah, ever since we voted in the new minister, everything's been pretty slow with the transition. Nothing's really – "

"Harry! What's this, were we supposed to bring along strays today and I missed the memo?"

A tall, lanky, dark-skinned and –haired man jostled through the crowd, dodging a pair of chatty witches on the way. He had a wry smile on his face as weekend-related exhaustion wore at the edges of his eyes, but he looked wiry, strong, young, even as his face betrayed a number of years under his belt.

"It's kind of a habit," Harry said, clapping the man's hand. "Hermione wanted to bring my daughter around for career counseling, but then thirty seconds after we got here she ran off. Lily – this is one of my friends and an Auror like me, Dean Thomas."

Lily smiled politely and held out a hand, only to have Dean shake it with a jackhammer's subtlety. "Wait a minute," he said, realization creeping into his eyes. "You're Harry's kid who was in the middle of that whole dark wizard shootout at Hogwarts a little more than a year ago, right? Neville told me all about that."

"Er – something like that," Lily said very quietly.

"Blimey. You teach 'em up well, Harry. She's not teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts already?"

Harry shrugged, his expression torn between pride and trying to move the conversation away from the subject of what had happened at the end of Lily's first year. "About that, actually; I wanted to introduce her – "

Dean cut him off with a bout of laughter: "Can't believe the man's agreed to that. Before you run though, Harry – you get to that hogwash up near Durmstrang yet?"

"I'm sorry, what?" said Harry, his face suddenly serious. Lily also hushed to listen: She knew what Durmstrang was, considering Professor Yaro had told the first-year Ravenclaws that he'd attended the Norwegian school of magic during their very first Transfiguration lesson.

"That whole bit about the Inferi attacking that gathering of teachers from the school, and Dolohov…" Dean trailed off, eying Lily before adding, "Y'know, run by the office when you get the chance and check it out. I didn't really see the hard evidence myself, but hey. We hear weird stuff happen every day and only ten percent of it is true. Good to meet you, Lily."

As Dean weaved his way back into the crowd, Lily huddled closer to her father and asked, "What's happened, Dad?"

"I don't actually know," said Harry, screwing up his face. "Hermione picked a hell of a day to bring you in. Come on. Let's get down to my office."

Brightly colored paper airplanes zipped through the air around them, pink ones darting here, green darting there, a blue one zipping by Lily's ear. By the time she and Harry made it to a grated elevator and down to the second floor of the Ministry, she thought she'd seen every color of message – right before a color-changing, neon one that squawked buzzed by her, looping around her head, zig-zagging through the halls and dive-bombing a short, plump witch who dropped a handful of parchment in surprise before hurrying away.

"Department of Magical Games. They think they're hilarious," Harry said, guiding her away down the wide, polished black stone-walled halls. "Ask Teddy sometime why they do that, considering that he works there."

Considering what she knew of Teddy Lupin, Lily figured the paper airplanes were more for entertainment than anything else.

Bright light spilled out from wide windows down the second floor hall, with loud chatter spilling out onto the floor. Lily was hardly surprised when Harry steered her in that direction, less so when he opened the door to the office and let loose the sound of laughter and faint music. Large, open cubicles filled the Auror's Office, a much more colorful and cheery place than Lily had imagined. She'd thought of her father's workplace as a sterile, stuffy joint, filled with serious-faced wizards and witches jumping at the chance to escort somebody off to Azkaban. Naturally, they all wore ankle-length black trenchcoats in her dreams as well, spinning their wands in their hands while clutching glasses of firewhisky, shut away in smoky, dim rooms.

The reality was much different. Pictures and articles covered the cubicles and the walls – here a photo of one Auror's family, his beautiful wife and spitting daughter waving, there a shot of Puddlemore United (Lily grimaced in disgust) soaring to score a goal. Wizards and witches of all sorts filled the spacious office, some reclining at their desks and sorting through pieces of parchment, others standing about a plate of croissants and waving at a newspaper.

"Harry!" called a tall, brown-haired man with a dark expression, chucking a half-eaten croissant on his desk and walking up to them. "Bloody crazy business this morning, what with the Inferi stuff – oh, who's this? This your daughter?"

"Yeah," he said, waving his hand between Lily and the Auror. "Lily, this is Michael Corner. He's been here ever since I started. You know his daughter, right? Also in Ravenclaw, your year?"

 _Oh lord_. _Say something nice_. Lily wanted nothing more than to vomit after realizing that this Michael Corner was the father of perhaps her least favorite person at Hogwarts, Evie Corner, both the smartest person in their year and the biggest know-it-all she'd ever known. She'd remembered Professor Longbottom mentioning back in her first year that Evie's father was an Auror. _Guess he was telling the truth._

"Oh, right!" Lily said, faking enthusiasm the best she could. "Yeah, we're…uh, classmates. She's brilliant."

"Well, not so sure about _brilliant_. She can do better," said Michael Corner. "Anyway, we'll see, right?"

"About that," Harry cut in. "Lily, your old Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is retiring, so Michael's agreed to take her spot. He'll be leaving here starting in September to be your teacher."

"Might be heading up your house too, for all I know," he added with a burst of pride.

Lily almost had to hold her jaw from dropping on the floor. _Evie's father is teaching Defense? And might be head of Ravenclaw? Please no._ The absolute last thing she wanted was a man who sounded as if he expected academic perfection to be on her case all the time. Worse, if he and her father were close…she could just imagine him dropping notes to her father from time to time. _Lily screwed up again. I thought she would be good at this class? She's garbage_. _Really, your daughter's only good at Potions, Herbology, and Astronomy?_

"You mind watching her for a second?" Harry said to Michael, glancing off towards the other Aurors. "Hermione wanted to bring her in to check out careers, but she ran off to…I don't know what…and I want to get the heads-up on this Inferi-Norway abduction business that Dean told me about."

Michael Corner nodded in exaggerated fashion. "Right, right, it's all good. Do your thing, boss."

Lily wanted to tag along with Harry. Michael Corner – _Professor Corner?_ – was odd, a pompous sort who puffed out his chest and pushed his long brown hair out of his face as if to show the world his visage. "So, you thinking about trying out to be an Auror one day, Lily?" he said. "Careers, long way off for a third-year, but never too early, really."

She waved a hand in the air awkwardly, putting on a plastic smile and saying, "I, uh…I'm kind of exploring my options. What's this?"

Lily pointed to a pyramid of posters on the near wall. Each was a black-and-white photo or sketch, the photos showing wizards and witches staring out and grimacing, many crazed and snarling, others unnaturally calm. At the very top of the pyramid was one burly-looking, unshaven wizard with a twisted face and dark hair, glaring out at her from the page. _Wizarding Wanted: Number one_ , read a caption beneath his photo, _Antonin Dolohov: On the run since the Battle of Hogwarts. Wanted for six confirmed murders and in questioning for more than two dozen unconfirmed reports._

He was a ghastly sort, no doubt, but Lily was more concerned with the number-two poster on the pyramid. It wasn't a photo but a sketch, unmoving, rough, a conjecture at best. The man sketched on the parchment was thin, gaunt, his cheeks sunken and shallow, with beady black eyes and silver hair. _Unknown assailant_ , read the sketch caption, _Hogwarts engagement. Last seen May 2020, Hogwarts School_.

"Unknown assailant." He wasn't unknown to Lily. She knew exactly who Sion Redgrave was. Part of her wanted to blurt that out, to point out that he wasn't an unknown at all but a dark wizard in pursuit of…of what, really? Lily's mind twisted, trying to figure out just what she knew. He knew Professor Vos, he knew… _things_ …and that was it. How would that sound to her father and this Michael Corner and the other Aurors?

Better to keep her mouth shut.

"This?" Michael said, waving his hand at the pyramid. "This is our most wanted list. All the dark wizards and witches we want to capture for all sorts of dastardly deeds. At number two there, that's the dark wizard who struck at Hogwarts a year ago – all of us want to know about him. Bet you do too, considering that we heard you were in the middle of the shootout. Number one's a lot more interesting, though. Dolohov there, he was a Death Eater, one of Voldemort's cronies. We got a report this morning that spotted him in Norway recently with a hundred Inferi, attacking and abducting a group of Norwegian teachers at the Durmstrang Institute, a – " Michael stopped all of the sudden, glancing down at Lily, as if he had released classified information unknowingly. Putting his lips together, pausing for a moment to think, and shrugging as if rationalizing that she was Harry Potter's daughter and had heard everything anyway, he added, "It's rough business. We want people to be on the lookout, but we're all busy. You know, new transition to a new Minister and all."

Lily wanted to know more, but before she could ask about this Dolohov fellow, the office door opened and in walked an almost regal man in a gilded cloak of silver and gold. He was short but stocky, only a few inches taller than Lily but built like a prodigal Beater. He had a short black goatee that matched his close-cropped hair and brown eyes, and his fine, shiny skin made him look as if he hadn't seen a day out in the elements his whole life.

He looked about, twirling his long, whippy wand in his hand as Michael Corner stopped talking immediately. "Harry, Harry Potter, been meaning to talk to you, where are you?"

Harry weaved his way through a number of Aurors around the dwindling plate of croissants. "Oh, Minister!" he exclaimed, looking surprised at the guest. "Is it about – "

The new arrival – the Minister, apparently – wasn't looking at Harry any more, however. He glanced Lily's way, his expression softening as he cried, "Ah! Is this your daughter, Harry? Brought her to show off?"

"Uh, no, you see, Hermione – "

"Oh, don't rationalize it, the girl's got potential if the reports from a year ago at Hogwarts were anything!" the Minister said, ignoring Harry completely and reaching out to grab Lily's hand. Lily, still in shock of the unexpected arrival, let her hand dangle like a dead fish as he shook it. "My name's Jeffrey Drake, Lily Potter. Minister of Magic, newly elected, formerly from Gringotts Bank. Harry, our chat can wait. Do you mind if I borrow your daughter for a bit?"

Harry's mouth hung ajar, his eyes flicking between the Minister and his daughter. After a long pause, he spread his hands and said, "Um, brilliant, sure, Minister. Go for it. Lily, go on. Be polite."

Lily glanced back at him, searching for what to do next, but he waved her on. Not that she had much choice: The Minister of Magic nearly dragged her out of the Auror's Office by her hand, guiding her back towards the lift. He was a much more powerful man than he looked, and as they walked down the hall, workers spread aside for them, glancing at Lily with questioning expressions.

"You know I was only elected this summer?" the Minister said as they boarded the lift, climbing back towards the first floor. "A lot of this job has been learning who to trust. It's been a busy transition, and your father's been a big help so far. Come, we'll talk more in my office."

The Minister's office wasn't anything to scoff at. Situated at the end of a secondary atrium on the first floor and looking out over a waterfall cascading into a rock-lined pool, the office was encased in glass on three sides. Images of talking heads spoke from projectors around a solid, shiny black desk, reporting the news from all corners of wizarding Europe. A giant Ministry "M" banner hung from behind the desk, with three padded chairs scattered about in front of it. A fireplace sat in one corner of the office, attached to no chimney but freestanding, burning for effect rather than heat. It was a spacious office, with room for at least two dozen people standing, not including the Minister at his desk. Upon the lone wall not encased in glass and overlooking the halls was an illusion of London, showing the Thames and a bright, sunny day, the clear morning sky watching over the busy city.

A head stuck out of the fireplace suddenly, the face serious, long, gaunt, and old. Lily jumped as they entered. "Can it wait, Kingsley?" asked the Minister as he shut the door behind them. "Company."

"I only needed to update you on the news today," said Kingsley Shacklebolt, the man Lily knew as the former Minister of Magic and a friend of her father's. "It's not just Durmstrang instructors and Norwegian officials among the missing. A former member of the Order of the Phoenix, Mundungus Fletcher, was seen being taken by the Inferi in the attack over the weekend."

"Wasn't that man a thief and a smuggler? That's not relevant at all. Little loss."

"I only thought you should know," said Kingsley. Just as soon as they had arrived he was gone, the fireplace returned to normal burning logs.

The Minister sat down in his chair, ushering Lily into a seat on the other side of his desk. "It's a nightmarish day. Problems in Norway, but hardly our responsibility. We have problems here at home, and that's our first duty. I hear you saw them during your first year at Hogwarts School?"

 _So that's what you wanted me for_. Lily nodded, folding her hands in her lap and looking down. "A little."

"Mm. This isn't an interrogation, Lily, I don't need to know any gruesome details," said the Minister. He got up and pointed to a kettle behind his desk. "Tea? It's probably early in the morning for someone on summer vacation."

"Oh, please," said Lily, trying on a smile. Her stomach was still settling from Hermione's impromptu side-along Apparition. Tea would go a long way to settling that.

The Minister turned his back, summoning two tea cups with his wand and pouring from the kettle. "I'm always a fan of sugar in my tea," he said, although Lily couldn't see him adding it with his back covering up the cups. "When I was at Gringotts, some called me a heretic for it. It eases away stress in my opinion."

He turned and set down a white, floral-patterned teacup before Lily. She eagerly took a sip: Even with the sugar it was strong by tea's standards. Lily had never felt much from tea before, but this time it made her head a tad woozy even as her thoughts grew a bit clearer. _Interesting tea_.

"You know," the Minister went on, "the Ministry offers a number of junior internships, even a junior assistant position for sterling students fresh out of schooling. Your father's, well, _legendary_ ; no doubt he's passed some of his talent on to you. I know you have brothers, and I've thought, well, maybe…"

"James is more interested in Quidditch," Lily said. Something compelled her to talk all about her brothers as she drank her tea. Well, why not? "Al…I think he wants a quiet kind of life."

The Minister shrugged. "Well, no matter. More talking about you, really, as you're the one here. I'm still learning the ins and outs of everything there is to governing a body like this, but it…well, it does make me wonder who I can trust. Do you talk regularly with your aunt, Hermione Weasley?"

Lily took another sip of her tea. Of course she talked with Hermione a lot. She could tell him that. "Yeah. She took me here today. She wanted to show me around for career stuff."

"Oh? Did she…suggest anywhere in particular for you after Hogwarts? Maybe joining the Ministry yourself?"

"Not that," Lily said, shaking her head. Heck, Hermione had griped about the Ministry. It was only right she tell the Minister all about what Hermione had said. She needed to be honest, really. That was what mattered. That was the only thing that mattered. "Well, she suggested it might not be so good an option no. She doesn't think having a Gringotts banker as Minister for Magic is a good idea. When she says that makes a Minister smarmy and greasy – "

The Minister cut her off with a loud _harrumph_. "Hm. That's a bit disappointing to hear, Lily. Is the tea good?"

"It's strong, sir. It's different."

"Hm, well, a bit of a personal blend, really. I've found it brings out the best in people. Would you say your aunt is, well, at odds with things around the Ministry?"

Of course she was at odds, Lily thought. She'd complained enough about it, hadn't she? And why shouldn't she tell the Minister this when he asked her? Honesty counted. That felt right. Her head felt a bit woozy, on the other hand, a tad dizzy and detached. "She doesn't sound like she likes it."

The Minister pondered this for a minute before going on: "Well, your aunt's always been her own person. How about your father? I want to get to know him better, but I'd love to hear from you. What's he say about his job and the Ministry as a whole? Doubtless he's got strong feelings."

Well, _no_. Harry was concerned about dark magic, not the Ministry. Of course, Lily needed to admit this, since the Minister had asked. She had to answer when asked. She took another sip of tea – addictive stuff, whatever this was – and said, "I don't think Dad really cares."

"That's good to hear, if nothing else," the Minister said. "Wanted to ask you about someone else, just as an off tangent…do you know your Headmaster well? John Maribor?"

"At Hogwarts?" Lily said. Of course she _knew_ him. More through Professor Vos than directly, but hey, the Minister had asked. "Roughly."

"Any thoughts about him? You hear anything about him? I get the idea he's rather stern, no?"

Lily nodded, her head wobbly. "My Astronomy professor said he'd be Minister one day," she said. That was right. Vos had said that, and since the Minister had asked, she needed to admit it. That was what honesty was all about. "I don't think he likes me very much."

"Hm. A bit concerning, but thank you Lily," said the Minister. He pulled out his wand, gave her a look, and said, "Can you look this way?"

She did, he waved his wand at her, and suddenly she felt something strange, like an invisible icy bucket had dumped its contents all over her. Her mind straightened out and wrangled with a headache, and suddenly Lily had a hard time remembering what she'd been talking about with the Minister for Magic. They'd been talking about career things, right? Positions in the Ministry? Something like that? Her memory felt fuzzy, like a gray veil hung over the last things she'd said.

"Anyway," the Minister said, as if nothing strange had happened, "Come next spring, I might offer you a place here. We could always use good, thinking interns, ones committed to the British ideal. I do have a busy slate, though – do you mind walking down on your own back to the second floor, Lily? You know where the lift is?"

She nodded, for she did – but it was the part in between coming up the lift and now that felt strange. Why didn't she remember what they'd come to talk about all of the sudden?

Lily filed out into the hall, wandering back towards the lift through a much less crowded hallway. She felt woozy, wobbly, her mind bloated and fat. It was all because of aunt Hermione. That was it. That was why she felt bad. She was happy the lift was empty except for a half-dozen multicolored paper airplanes buzzing around her head, all of them like the moths that buzzed around her brain, flighty, dizzy things.

Two wizards were arguing in the hall when she stepped out of the lift on the second floor. One was unfamiliar, portly, with a mop of blond hair dangling about his boyish face. The other, though…

"I don't care what you want," Headmaster Maribor snarled in the other man's face. "I don't care if you think you can cut costs at _my school_. I am the Headmaster. It is mine. You want me to lower my castle's defenses to let you in and out, just so you can make an accounting of the place? That's preposterous. I won't risk it."

"John, come on," the other man pleaded. "We've all learned from that black widow Dolores Umbridge. We're not boogey men. Hogwarts is Hogwarts, that's that. We won't impose any Inquisitor or some dictatorship. We won't make any drastic changes. Besides, we're not asking for you to drop Hogwarts's defenses permanently, just when we're coming and going. The Minister just thinks the school's using a lot more money than it needs to, and when we're paying back debt to Gringotts, well…you see where we might be able to cut costs. We can help you. Do you really need to have students playing Quidditch, for example?"

Maribor looked ready to clock his opposition in the face when he spotted Lily. He froze, stuck halfway between the two of them before he turned fully towards her and said, "What are you doing here?"

She opened her mouth to say something – _better tell him the truth after all; that's what you do_ – when a little voice in her mind stopped her. _Why are we telling him the truth, again?_ "I'm, um…I'm just passing through," stammered Lily.

"Lily, you are _not_ supposed to be here," Maribor growled.

The other man perked up at the name, however, and said, "Lily? Wait a minute, you're Lily Potter? Daughter of Harry? Blimey, I suppose your father brought you in for a look around? Considering your future? I should introduce you – this here's – "

"I think she bloody well knows who I am, thank you," Maribor rounded on the blonde wizard with a snarl. "Lily, this is Declan Stennis, head of the Department of Magical Education, who so delightfully wanted a meeting with me on a Monday morning. Also, who I had just finished with, and who was about to let me go back to my school."

"Well, hardly," the other man, Declan, said, puffing out his chest. "I mean, I wanted to ask a few things – "

"if you're already invading my castle, they can wait," Maribor growled.

The wizard, Declan, stood up to Maribor for a moment before walking away, glancing at Lily for a second before taking the lift down. The Hogwarts Headmaster stormed up to Lily, his wand out, his face full of stone and steel.

"Did your father bring you here today?" Maribor asked her, his voice grating and angry.

Lily felt scared all of the sudden, wanting to shrink away back into the lift. "Yes – I mean, he and my aunt – I didn't do anything!"

But it wasn't her words that had set the Headmaster off. He set aside whatever he was here for, instead squinting at Lily with a concerned expression. " _Lumos_ ," he said, lighting his wand and holding it up in front of Lily's face. "Don't move."

She wasn't about to tell him no. Lily stood as still as a statue as Maribor waved his wand in front of her face, peeking closer as he did. He reached out and pushed up her left eyelid as Lily sucked in her breath. She wanted to look away from his bright want, but the Headmaster wanted to see something, _something_ , in her eyes.

"Shoddy hiding," he muttered after a moment. "Where'd you just come from?"

"Nowhere!"

"I hate bureaucrats as much as anyone. I'm on your side. I used to work here. Where are you coming from?"

Lily's lip quivered. "The Minister. We were just talking about career stuff."

Maribor snorted, drawing away from her: "Bullshit. That small little man is Gringotts' pawn. Resorting to something like this after thieving the role that is rightfully mine; disgusting. Those goblins are up to something. Is your father in?"

The Headmaster half-dragged Lily back to the Auror Office. His face had turned to stone, angry and solid. When he shoved open the door to the cheery office, Michael Corner stood up and said, "Headmaster Maribor? From Hogwarts? None of us are – "

"Where's your boss?" Maribor snarled, shoving Lily in front of him. As Harry stood up across the office, Maribor pulled Lily along with him over to him.

"Lily!" Harry said, looking concerned. "What happened?"

"I can respect you Harry, even if the rest of these shits make me want to vomit," Maribor growled. "Try watching your children closer. If you want them to learn, don't bring them around these parts. Try Hogwarts. This place is dead. At least we don't use Veritaserum on children in _my_ castle. Not as long as I'm there, at least. I'm not that suspicious."


	29. Storm Clouds Rising

_**Thanks to ukrainianelfhorse, my lovely guest, and luluguineapig with all the great reviews since my last update (lulu with six (6!) of 'em – wow!) Really happy people are reading along and liking the story enough to chime in; you have criticisms, comments, whatever, feel free to let me know!**_

 _ **Lily's third year draws closer, but first we stop in at a familiar locale as disgruntlement over the state of things pervades and meet someone I've been hinting at for quite a while...  
**_

* * *

"They did _what_?"

Hermione's gasp made Lily wince. She knew she was in some sort of trouble, but she didn't understand it: There she'd been, talking about career possibilities with the Minister of Magic of all people, then she'd been heading down the elevator, walking back to her dad's office when the Headmaster had stopped her – and then everything'd gone haywire until here they were, huddling in Hermione's personal office. It was a spacious place, about half as large as the Minister's quarters, complete with an oaken, jade-inlaid desk long enough to seat three people and covered in all manner of books, papers, maps, and notes. A giant corkboard twice as long as Lily was tall hung on one wall of the office, a hundred colorful pins holding up pictures, notes, and scraps of parchment.

From one notably large picture stared a middle-aged woman with pale skin, jet black hair, and deep blue, almost purple eyes, her slightly-raised eyebrows, subtle smile, and the lazy way she ran a finger through her hair from time to time giving off a cocky air. _What is she up to?_ read a rough scrawl beneath the picture. From a green pushpin beside it ran a red line of yarn to a Gringotts logo nearby, the bank's golden logo divided in half by a black line of yarn. Beside the woman's photo was a newspaper clipping from the Daily Prophet, reading, "FELL ACCUSES MINISTRY OF SYSTEMIC CORRUPTION: Notorious populist and social critic Alanis Fell called out the Ministry of Magic over the shocking results of the recent Minister vote…"

Examining the cork board interested Lily a lot more than listening to Harry and Hermione argue. Couldn't they just drop this? She didn't remember anything bad happening after she'd left the Auror office with the Minister, not until Maribor had made a scene in the hall, at least.

"Hogwarts's Headmaster found her when she was coming back and noticed it in her eyes. I looked too, Hermione, definitely somebody gave her something," said Harry. Lily wanted to shrink into a ball as they talked about her as if she wasn't there. "Whatever John was here for, he had the Veritaserum antidote on him, and I gave it to her. Also…"

Harry glanced Lily's way, scrunched up his face, pulled out his wand, and put the tip of it to his temple while giving Hermione a knowing look. Whatever he meant she seemed to understand: She pulled up a chair, sat down across from Lily, and asked, "Lily, do you remember what you talked about with the Minister?"

"Nothing bad!" Lily protested, feeling borderline hysterical at being left out of the loop. "We talked about internships and things!"

"Anything in particular?"

Lily waved her hand, closing her eyes to try and remember how the conversation went. Why was it hard to remember when she'd had it so recently? "He mentioned about trying out for a position over summer break sometime after fifth year…and then the junior assistant to the Minister position…and then we talked about grades and OWLs and NEWTs and things…that was it, I swear!"

Hermione gave Harry a wry frown, stood up, and said in a quiet voice, "Probably just a small memory charm."

"What?" Lily asked. Sisyphean futility crept over her as Hermione and Harry continued to council.

"Look, this is actually a good thing," Hermione went on, ignoring Lily. "If the Minister wants to throw his cards on the table and say out loud that he doesn't trust his subordinates and that he's willing to play dirty, we can play dirty, too. I kind of wanted him or one of his cronies to do something when we brought Lily in – "

Harry cut her off: "Wait a minute, did you bring Lily in just to use her as bait?"

"I'm right here, Dad! Aunt Hermione! What's going on?"

"Bait's a really harsh word, Harry. It's more like temptation. Look, it worked, we learned something!"

"That's exactly the same thing as bait, Hermione. You can't just enlist her in whatever you're planning. You could also clue me in."

Hermione cut off Lily's continued protests before they began: "This whole Gringotts buying the Minister of Magic position is fishy, Harry, come on. They put their crony into the top spot in the Ministry just as the bank is splitting down the middle, with the goblins and the rich families siding with the Ministry all of the sudden as everyone else thinks this Alanis Fell woman is great, just as she's shrieking to anyone who listens that the sky is falling? Well, _I'm_ not going to pick sides in whatever this mess is. I want to know what's really going on, and if that means getting my hands dirty, fine, I'll do it."

"What is this all about?" Lily said, bunching up her fists. "The man with the Headmaster said something about Gringotts too, and – "

That got it: Both Harry and Hermione's heads swiveled over to stare at her. "Who?" asked Harry.

"It was…this frumpy guy, the Headmaster said he did something with education, his name was…Stennis, or something…"

Harry and Hermione exchanged glances. "Did you hear anything about that?" asked the latter.

"Just a little," said Lily, aware that she'd overstepped what she was comfortable admitting, especially with Hermione rolling ahead with whatever her grand scheme was at two hundred kilometers per hour. "The man said something about coming and going to Hogwarts, and something about cutting costs. I don't remember it all. What's this about?"

"Coming and going to the school? From the Ministry? You sure?" Harry asked. When Lily nodded, he glanced Hermione's way and muttered, "That's Umbridge-esque."

Hermione's eyes lit up. Harry, noticing that he'd sparked an idea that led down problematic paths, motioned to say something, but she cut him off with a hand: "Lily you want to help us out?"

Lily wrapped her arms over her chest. The last time she'd tried to help out, she'd ended up letting a dark wizard into the school and indirectly had sent Hagrid into partial retirement on account of his injuries. "Help with what?"

"If someone from the Ministry shows up a lot at school…if it's even the man you said you saw talking to your Headmaster…try and get to know him and play friends," said Hermione, a hint of cunning in her words. "Kiss up to him. Pretend like you really, really want to get into the Ministry after school. Even if you have to talk bad about me to get close, that's alright. Just if you hear anything strange about the Ministry, or about Hogwarts, or about anyone in particular…let your dad and I know."

Harry sighed, looking helpless before Hermione's persuasion. "Lily, if you don't want to do anything, don't feel like you have to. You don't have to…well, spy for us."

"Harry, please, we did much worse by our third years."

"I'll do it," said Lily out of the blue. "I'll do it."

While her dad had his heart in the right place, Lily felt energized by Hermione's idea. This whole deal with something going on in the Ministry, with…whatever regarding the Ministry had made them so upset…with this Gringotts business was, all of it, made Lily hungry for more. Being a spy sounded like fun.

She just had to be more careful about what came in the mail this time.

Summer sped up through late July and into August. Lily found herself giving in to James's Quidditch pestering more often as she thought about her own house's tryouts in the coming year, what with five of the seven players from the horrible team of the last two years having graduated. The mundane concerns of schoolwork and classes crept back into Lily's mind – boring things, especially after her second year had been nothing but mundane. The thought of spying on Hogwarts for Harry and Hermione filled her with excitement: It was something to do that wasn't answering the increasingly insane riddles of the Ravenclaw common room's entrance statue or struggling to stay awake in History of Magic or listening to Wayne Torres attempt to explain the rules of Muggle sports to Logan.

A small part of her did miss those everyday joys, though. She missed Natalie and Logan and the chatter of the hallways, the autumn sun reflecting off the Black Lake on the last warm day of the year, the scrumptious meals and the Great Hall's myriad floating candles. Soon. Soon she'd be ignoring it all as an everyday haze, but for now, it was a sweet reminisce.

By the time Lily tromped off to Diagon Alley for school supply shopping with her mother and brothers, Hogwarts felt closer than ever.

"Mum, really, serious," James protested as they all stood outside Broomstix – Every Essential for Your Boom, from Elementary to Expert! "Really need a new broom. That old one's just…it doesn't turn half as fast as it could."

Ginny gave him a skeptical look. "James, it's perfectly fine. You're not a Seeker, for Merlin's sake. Beaters don't need state-of-the-art stuff that'll bankrupt our family."

"You want Gryffindor to win this year, don't you Mum? I mean…come on, now…"

"Oh dear, you might have to earn your victory for once," said Ginny, rolling her eyes at her oldest son. "You can buy something for your broom, James, but not a new one entirely. And I'm coming in, too. Al, can you take Lily for books while I'm babysitting your brother?"

Lily was happy to get away from the combination of James and Quidditch for a bit. Diagon Alley was a lot nicer near its giant, landmark bookstore, Flourish and Blotts. The shop itself was a monstrous building, sporting a new renovation that had doubled it in size and added all sorts of secluded bookshelves, reading areas, and even an outdoor, umbrella-strewn patio where patrons flipped through newly-bought tomes. Across the way ringed the din from Ron and George's mammoth joke shop: Every year they'd striven to out-do the gaudy exterior of the year before, leading to this year's iteration with flaming depictions of Veela dancing above the firework-spewing green-and-orange cone roof.

"Oh, let's not go over there just yet," Al groaned Lily craned her neck to get a better view of the displays in the joke shop windows. "Someone over there I really don't want to talk to."

"Who?" asked Lily.

Al jabbed a subtle finger towards a tall, blonde-haired and green-eyed boy in a stark white robe standing in front of the front entrance of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, poking at a short, dark-skinned girl's hair and making her laugh. "That guy.

"Who is he?"

"An absolute clown. His name's Tanner Wynch; he's a Hufflepuff in my year. He's the Keeper on their Quidditch team, thinks he's awesome."

"Why don't you just put him in detention or something? You're a prefect now."

Al snorted, "Lily, that's abusing being a prefect. I can't just say, hey, screw you, go to detention, your face is bad."

"Well, just think up an excuse."

"Wait, can you say that again? I want to make sure you're an imposter. The sister I grew up with was afraid of coloring outside the lines in her books."

Perhaps they shook off the guy Al didn't want to see, but Lily didn't make it two steps into Flourish and Blott's before she ran into someone she wasn't so keen on, either. Between floor-to-ceiling shelves laden with books stood Scorpius Malfoy, scowling as he thumbed through a thick, sparkling fresh copy of _Advanced Rune Translation_. He'd grown a lot since his third year: Scorpius was one of the tallest boys Lily knew, filling out his frame even though he wasn't much of an athlete. He'd let his silvery-blonde hair grow long but kept it sleek, like the hair of some rich patrician of ancient years old.

He looked up as Al and Lily stepped into the store, nodding a cool greeting at Al and glancing at Lily with a look of amusement. _Swell guy_. Lily stuffed her hands in her pockets and headed off to an adjacent textbooks section in the labyrinthine store. She'd had little to do with Scorpius since their rendezvous her first year, even as she knew he and Hugo were still best friends. Different strokes…

As Lily was looking over her required course books list, however, she heard his voice drawling behind her: "Arithmancy? You're even more of a nerd than Hugo lets on."

Lily looked back to see him loitering against the side of a shelf, tossing _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 5_ from hand to hand. She rolled her eyes and went back to her book list, but he plucked it from her hands to have a look himself.

"Arithmancy _and_ Ancient Runes. That's miserable," said Scorpius, grimacing at the parchment. "Are you a masochist?"

"Maybe I like learning things," Lily snapped, snatching the parchment back and ripping it in the process. "What do you take, Divination or something?"

He shrugged. "Matter of fact I do. It's an easy pass. You envious of my easy class? I'd say you're red with envy, but it might just be your hair."

"Or it's you making me mad that you're wasting my time. Go away, Scorpius."

"That's rude of you. Maybe I wanted to talk Arithmancy."

"And how much you think it's nerdy, sure. Go away."

"So moody," he snorted, leaving her in peace at last.

She didn't make it much longer before running into another Hogwarts familiar face – although this time it wasn't a student. Professor Yaro from Transfiguration wandered about the bookstore's ground floor, a copy of some thin and novel-looking book clutched in one hand. His youthful good looks had never faded – if anything, he'd only bolstered them with a thin beard that strengthened his jaw and gave the dark, foreign teacher an aura of authority.

"Ah," he said, noticing her. "Being responsible and buying textbooks? I wish I could say the same, but I like cheap crime thrillers like this."

He waved his book in one hand. A trenchcoat-wearing, cigar-smoking man hunched over on the cover as a seductive-looking, raven-haired woman in a tight red dress eyed him from down a stylized alley, a knife clenched in one hand. _Cheap crime thriller doesn't do that justice_. "Are you buying class supplies, professor?"

"Sadly, no, I'm not that responsible," he said with a shrug. "Buying entertainment, yes. The difficult life of an instructor. I won Professor Longbottom's earnings for next month in a recent game of chance we had. Rather than save it, I instead will blow it all today on trinkets I do not need and food that will shave years off of my life."

Lily laughed. She'd never gotten to know Yaro very well, something that looked like a mistake in hindsight. "I, um…you went to Durmstrang, right professor?"

"I did. Boring, chilly place."

"Er…I heard about the disappearances going on around there from…people," said Lily, recalling what she'd heard at the Ministry. "I'm sorry."

Yaro waved off her concern: "That's all in Norway, Lily, far from my home. I am from Estonia. No one I know fell off the map in whatever has been occurring around there. Although it does make one sad to see such things with no answers for it. I remember many friends from the region, and I hope such disappearances are a one-time thing."

 _Indeed_. Lily wasn't done running into people, however: No sooner had Yaro walked out of the shop than another professor walked in, clapping him on the back and stopping on a dime as he spotted Lily.

"Trying to look like an intellectual with your arms full of books? You're not fooling me," Professor Vos said, standing in the doorway with his best attempt at a bright smile.

"Professor!" Lily shouted. She didn't know whether to wave or run up and shake his hand or hug him, so she waffled on all three and ended up doing an awkward little dance in place.

Vos looked tougher yet wearier than Lily remembered from just two months back at the end of her second year. Lines creased his face – something she should have expected, given that the man was in his late forties – but he still kept himself in tip-top shape physically. Vos's shoulders and arms looked more muscular than ever, bulging out of a camouflage t-shirt he wore, the green-and-brown military pattern interrupted with bright white words in French and a golden symbol on the chest that Lily recognized from the one emblazed on the green-and-red flag in his office.

"Is this a Muggle shirt?" she said, trying to make out what the foreign language said.

Vos flicked the sleeves. "Yah. This is old. Relic of what I was doing in the nineties. If you're not busy, I can go tell you about it over a drink in the Leaky Cauldron. You can regale me about whatever it is you get up to during summer."

Lily didn't need a second prompting. She dumped her books on her brother ("Just buy them, Al! I'll see you later!") and tromped off after Vos.

The Leaky Cauldron was the one place in Diagon Alley that desperately needed a renovation: It was old and _smelled_ old, like Lily's grandfather's shed where he kept all the Muggle gadgets and trinkets he messed around with in retirement. The wooden beams supporting the roof looked in danger of collapsing any day now, and the oaken bar top itself was chipped and dented here and there, souvenirs of tavern disputes that hadn't ended with words.

"Ruttin' love this place," Vos said as he clunked a butterbeer in front of Lily in a corner booth, plopping down with a full half a bottle of firewhisky. "Believe it or not, Professor Longbottom and his wife used to run this joint. Long time ago, before he became a professor."

"It's not really Professor Longbottom's kind of place," said Lily, nursing her bottle and looking around. The clientele was a motley sort today – a group of young wizards all laughing and clinking glasses around a card game at one end of the tavern, while at the opposite end stood a gaggle of extremely pale, tall men in long black cloaks. In another world, Lily would have thought they were vampires. _Wait a minute, they probably are_.

Vos shrugged and took a long swig from his bottle. "Yah, Neville's not such a simple guy. Really great man, though. Oh, speaking of – his wife's a Healer, if you don't know, and I convinced the Headmaster to boot Justman's ass out of the castle. Technically he got a job offer from a magical hospital in Canada, but I'm not sorry to see him go. I am sorry that I won't get the chance to hex him out a window. 'Cuz of that, though, Neville's wife, Hannah, is going to be the school's matron this year."

He moved to say something else, but right then he spotted someone entering through the door off of Diagon Alley. "Bliksem; you have got to be fookin' kidding me," he groaned, crouching low over the table to avoid being seen. "All the bars in the magical world and she comes into this one."

It didn't work. The new arrival spotted Vos from across the tavern and walked in their direction immediately. She was a beautiful woman in Lily's eyes – tall, strong, and retaining some of her youth with pale skin and long, wavy black hair that curled at its ends, her eyes a deep, regal blue that looked almost purple in the dingy light of the Leaky Cauldron. She was easily the best-dressed person here, wearing a gown-like, full-length, sleeveless black robe that clung tight to her shoulders and hips before billowing around her knees.

"Get out, succubus," moaned Vos as she pulled up a chair to the edge of their booth.

"You don't mean that," the woman said with a voice like velvet. Grabbing Vos's whisky bottle, she added, "You wouldn't have bought my drink if you meant it."

Lily edged to the corner of the booth, unsure what to make of the turn of events. Vos looked… _peeved_. He glared at the woman as she took a long swig of whisky: "What are you doing here?"

She set the bottle down, wiped her lip, and said, "Nice French Foreign Legion shirt. You actually keep up with any of your Muggle friends, Jurre?"

" _What are you fookin' doing here?_ "

"That's rude. You even brought a guest and you're acting all Rhodesian in front of her."

Lily kept her mouth clamped shut as she watched their increasingly hostile exchange, clutching her butterbeer to her chest. Something about the woman was familiar, really, as if she'd seen her before – something that made her recall her visit to the Ministry, even.

Vos breathed out heavily, snatching the whisky bottle back from the woman. "This is Lily Potter. That Potter's daughter. Lily, this...um…I know her…is Alanis Fell."

Swallowing hard, Lily remembered Hermione's corkboard – _what is she doing?_ She remembered Vos's tale her first year, his story of his flight to Britain from Germany and Sion, all with one woman at his side – one who, apparently, had found a good time to corner him in the Leaky Tavern on a summer afternoon.

"The Lily Potter?" Alanis asked, flicking a finger at her. "The one involved in that Hogwarts incident a little over a year ago? So you know our mutual friend?"

Lily narrowed her eyes. "What mutual friend?"

"She was there when Sion showed up, yes," Vos grumbled into his alcohol. "Look, Alanis, you shouldn't even be here. I read about the kind of shite you're stirring up in the papers, the Ministry thinking you're a danger. They're going to gun you down in the street at this rate. Why are you here?"

"Mostly because I saw you coming out of Flourish and Blotts and followed you. It's been way, way too long since we chatted," she said. "And if you really read the _Prophet_ , you'll see that for every person who hates what I have to say about wizarding Britain, there's someone else who shares my opinion. People think the Ministry's shifty after that new Minister of Magic got the job. I'd say I'm pretty popular, Jurre. Is that somehow worse than hiding up at Hogwarts like you're doing?"

She turned towards Lily, who'd huddled against the wall, trying to appear as small as possible. "You like your professor here, Lily? Is a good teacher?"

Lily eyed her suspiciously. "He's the best teacher at Hogwarts."

"Well, that's good to hear," Alanis said, turning to Vos with a sly smile. "And look, all the time I pushed you about kids and you end up being good with them."

Vos slammed his bottle onto the table with a murderous expression, shocking the huddle of vampires in the tavern. "We are _not_ having _that_ conversation here! Not in front of my student especially!"

"How old are you, Lily? Thirteen?" Alanis asked. "When you get a bit older and start having boyfriends, remember that this is what a nasty ex-lovers' spat looks like."

"Professor Vos wanted to know why you were here, and you didn't answer him," Lily said, feeling increasingly anxious about this. A nice afternoon at Diagon Alley had suddenly turned sour, and Vos looked about one more offense away from pulling out his wand and driving Alanis Fell through a wall.

"You sound a lot like how I imagined your dad back during Voldemort's heyday," said Alanis, pulling the whisky bottle back from Vos and taking a swig. "All business. Ready to be a hero. I'm getting to it, Lily. Tell me this: What's your dad think about the Ministry of Magic, hm?"

 _He wants me to spy on it at Hogwarts, but I'm sure not telling you that_. "He doesn't talk about it much."

"Oh, come on, I saw the newspaper clip when Hermione Weasley herself called out the Ministry over the new Minister," Alanis said, wiggling the bottle's neck in between her fingers. "It's funny; she and I are really on the same side here. The Ministry is full of idiots, just like it was back during the Voldemort days, and it's headed by an idiot. Only this time they're not facing a dark wizard obsessed with blood purity and whatnot, but someone a lot smarter, and they're going to get destroyed if they don't stop screwing around."

"What?" Vos bellyached.

"Jurre, give me a break. You can't tell me you didn't see those disappearances up near Durmstrang in Norway and thought it was just random chance. Sion tried to assassinate you in your castle and you're still satisfied hiding back there?"

Vos scowled at her. "You think Sion's abducting people in Norway for…shites and giggles?"

"I think someone else we know is ordering him to do it," Alanis said, her eyes wide, "and I think the two people who know him best, both of whom are sitting around this table and aren't your student, should do something about it before he comes to Britain."

Lily finally spoke up, realizing just how deep this conversation was going: "Wait, is this that…mentor you said, Professor? He's behind those abductions?"

Alanis looked impressed. "You told her all that, Jurre? We might as well adopt her and become a wonderful little family."

"Fook off."

"Sometime before you go back to school with this drunkard, Lily, ask your dad about how well the Ministry did the last time they tried to fight a dark wizard," said Alanis, ignoring Vos. "Ask him about how they left everyone in Britain out to dry as they ignored Voldemort coming back to power, brushing away when his Death Eaters would kill someone's entire family and blaming it on a tragic accident. Then think about the Ministry today, the same one your aunt railed against after that rigged vote. How well do you think they would do against someone who really has no regard for human life?"

Vos snorted away her warning. "And your great idea is to spark a schism in wizarding Britain. Brilliant. I'm not helping you become a public enemy, Alanis. If you want to become a demagogue and bring the entire Ministry down on your head, go for it."

Alanis leaned over the table suddenly, drawing close to Vos with a serious expression. "Jurre, look across the table. If you were willing to tell her about all this, if she was there to see Sion attack you, then I'm willing to bet Lily here is one of your favorite students, isn't she? Picture what happens when _he_ and Sion gather enough strength to start acting on all those plans that made us leave Germany! Imagine those two running over this impotent Ministry of Magic and abducting Lily here next! When you're facing off against your own student on the battlefield, except she's been twisted and morphed into one of his _beasts_ – "

"I can protect myself!" Lily protested. "If this is all like that man who came to Hogwarts, I can fight that."

"You're brave, Lily, and you sound like you have a good head, but you have no idea what this man is capable of," Alanis said, her eyes bright and her face flushed. "We didn't for the longest time, either. If you think Sion's anything, that man's just his apprentice."

"Stop bullshitting her," Vos spat. "Don't drag her into this hellhole. This isn't even what this is about, Alanis. I know why you're railing against the Ministry instead of actually going out to hunt down Sion and kill him, if you're so concerned. This is revenge. You're mad that the Ministry did nothing when the Death Eaters gunned down your family, so now that you have the knowledge to hurt the system, you're doing just that. This has nothing to do with our mentor."

Alanis stormed up from her chair, her eyes flashing with anger. "This has everything to do with doing the right thing, because Britain is my home, and Hogwarts is my school, and my family is buried in this country. But if you're not going to help me and we're not going to act like adults, then I did waste my time trying to convince you to be a man, Jurre. Go hide behind your walls and teach Astronomy."

She turned to leave, but glanced back at Lily: "Find yourself a better role model, Lily. A brave girl like you shouldn't be looking up to a coward."


	30. The Men With No Names

The black stews of Hermione's assignment and Alanis's urging bubbled in the back of Lily's mind through the end of summer. In the dark of night she let her thoughts fester, until fears of some lurking danger from both inside the Ministry and from wherever Sion and his mysterious mentor dwelled seemed immediately at hand. Lily was grateful when August rolled into September and it was time to head back to Hogwarts, where at the very least she had something else to think about. She welcomed all those mundane worries and anxieties of being a student.

Crowds of wizards and witches swarmed Platform Nine and Three-Quarters on the first of the month, chatting, laughing, crying, and hugging each other goodbye as the great crimson Hogwarts Expressed stood by, smoke blooming from its engine. Lily's owl Andy made a right racket on her trolley, hooting merrily at every smaller owl they passed and giving the stink-eye to the occasional larger eagle owl. Lily had to dodge sharply right to avoid a gaggle of giggling second-year girls, nearly crashing into a bald, plain-looking wizard in a scarlet jerkin on the edge of the platform.

"Pardon," he said, smiling and stepping by as Lily excused herself.

Hugo pushed his trolley next to her, their families still coming through the barrier to King's Cross. "It feels like it's getting busier every year," Hugo mused as they weaved through the crowd.

"I think it's just the first-years getting tinier. Look, they're getting shorter," Lily said as a very nervous boy, clearly a first-year in his demeanor, clung to his yawning father against the platform wall. "We weren't that small two years ago, right?"

"I guess," said Hugo. "Rose is still taller than me, though. Are you sitting with anyone on the train, by the way?"

Lily opened her mouth to answer, but she spotted a familiar face through the crowd. Leaving her trolley with her cousin, she darted past a frumpy, angry-looking witch, skittered between two arguing wizards in full-length magenta robes, and crashed headlong with open arms into a short, blonde-haired girl standing off by the platform's back retaining wall.

"Natalie!" cried Lily, hugging her friend in a vise grip and burying her face in her hair.

It was good to see her with bright eyes and a smile, Lily thought. After what Nat had gone through, the trials and tribulations of her first year that led to spending most of the summer before their second in the inpatient ward at St. Mungo's with the rest of the infected students, having her out and about with a full year's separation since all that mess made a huge difference. As much as Lily looked forward to seeing her other friends and classmates, Natalie had been the one who'd first accepted her during her lonely start at Hogwarts two years ago. She was as good a best friend as Lily could think of.

"It's great to be back," Natalie laughed, holding onto their hug until Lily finally broke them apart to get a better view of her friend.

She hadn't grown much since their first year. The welts on her neck and chin had subsided slightly, but the blue-purple discoloration and lumpy rise had remained. Lily was glad to see Natalie had left behind her high-collared shirts of the past year, however: It was a sign she was getting over that whole ordeal and not letting Sion's mystery sickness dictate who she was. _She's stronger than that twisted man. Besides, she's actually really pretty…_

"Are you here all by yourself?" Lily said with a hint of concern.

Natalie firmed her smile and gave an exaggerated shrug. "Yeah. My mum took me to the station, but my dad…wanted her back home as soon as she dropped me off."

Lily's heart sank. Among other mysteries she was looking into, she wanted to get to the bottom of just what was going on at the Hightower household. Whatever it was, it made Natalie eager to leave to Hogwarts and depressed every time they left the school to head home. Lily wanted to invite her over for the summer – surely her parents wouldn't object – but it wasn't her mum and dad she was worried about.

"Um…how about grab us a compartment?" said Lily, trying to look positive. "I need to say bye to some people, then I'll find you."

She darted back through the crowd and returned to her trolley as Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Hugo, and Al huddled about. Rose and James were gone – no doubt off to their own compartments and their friends already.

Harry jokingly chided her, "You really going to run off before at least waving to us?"

"I was saying hi to my friend, Dad!"

"Oh, whatever. Come here."

He wrapped her up in a hug, and for a moment, Lily didn't want to let go. She was excited to head back to school, to dive into whatever awaited in her third year, but here in her father's arms she was safe. Secure. Loved.

"Have some fun this year, alright?" Harry whispered to her as he handed her off to Ginny.

Hermione hugged her after that, whispering in her ear, "Remember, we're just a letter away, Lily. I can't wait to hear all about your year." She broke apart with a sly little grin, urging her on to the train. She disappeared with the rest of the onlookers and well-wishers as the Hogwarts Express pulled away from the station. Lily was on her own again…but this time she felt in control of the situation, not the other way around.

She hurried down the train corridor, lugging her trunk behind her past a group of sixth-years loitering in the hall. Moving from one car to the next, she ran square into two of the last people she wanted to return to at Hogwarts. Evie Corner and Kaya Kennington were headed the opposite direction, the two fellow third-year Ravenclaw girls eyeing Lily with a distinct look of distaste. Lily couldn't say she _hated_ them or their fellow Ravenclaw first-year who they stuck with, Marie D'Angelo, but she'd never mended things with Kaya ever since her snarky insult on the very first night at Hogwarts. Evie might have been the smartest girl in their year, but the air of self-righteousness that accompanied those brains made Lily occasionally fantasize about choking the life out of her in the middle of the night in their dormitory.

"What are you _wearing_?" Kaya said to her with a hint of revulsion.

 _Good to see you too_. Lily looked down at her t-shirt stamped with the circular, silver-and-black logo of her favorite pro Quidditch team, the Falmouth Falcons, and said, "Clothes."

Evie narrowed one eye. "My dad said he saw you at the Ministry," she said. "What were you doing there?"

"Walking," said Lily. Excuses abandoned her as she hid what she _actually_ had heard at the Ministry.

"Walking?" Kaya said, looking befuddled.

"Yeah. With my dad. Who also works there."

Evie looked her as if she were infected and pulled Kaya into the train car Lily'd just vacated. Her father hadn't been _horrible_ , Lily thought, not even bad, really. Boring sort with a face like a rain cloud, but the prospect of him teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts as Harry had said didn't strike her as fun at all. _Imagine a professor as snobbish as Evie with the power to give his kid brownie points all year long…_

Lily thought she would've preferred to stare straight at Vos's mind-broiling nightmare down in the castle bowels rather than endure that. At least she'd only had to deal with that thing once: In the year and change since the end of her first year, Vos hadn't kept her up to speed on what was going on down there anymore. If Sion was still trying to get his hands on the beast, he wasn't trying very hard.

Finally she found Natalie – and with company. Logan and Wayne took up one side of the compartment and were deep in discussion as Lily tapped on the glass door.

"So you _did_ decide to come. You took so long I thought you'd just bailed," Wayne joked as she dragged her trunk into the compartment. "Oh good, you brought me a footrest."

"Ha, ha," Lily grumbled, plopping down next to Natalie. "I ran into Evie."

Natalie made a face. "Ew. What'd she want?"

"Probably trying to become the next Minister of Magic," Wayne scoffed. "Her first decree will be that everyone in Britain attends daily study hall."

"Her dad's teaching Defense this year," Lily mused.

Wayne almost choked in shock: "What? Where'd you hear that rubbish?"

"Professor Morrigan retired. Evie's dad is teaching that and might be head of Ravenclaw, too. I met him when I went to the Ministry with my dad."

Logan, who'd been quiet so far, caught on with that hint: "Oh, yeah? Was that some kind of a field trip?"

She met his gaze. They'd never told anyone the details of what happened down below Hogwarts at the end of their first year; as far as Lily knew, that was a secret privy only to the two of them, Professor Vos, and Sion, wherever he was. Lily had doubted anyone would have believed the insanity of the story, while Logan had pointed out that it would be better if they didn't: If they did, Vos had no chance of keeping his job, the Headmaster likely would be gone too, and both Lily and Logan would be hit with all kinds of questions and even accusations. _First-years summoning dark wizards to Hogwarts!_

Better to keep it a secret. They'd confided in each other, Vos, and nobody else for a year and counting.

Lily couldn't tell him about her run-in with Vos and Alanis Fell at the Leaky Cauldron – not here in front of Natalie and Wayne. She did, however, trust them enough to let them in on Hermione's suspicions about the Ministry checking in at Hogwarts. She told them of the Headmaster and the wizard from the education department, Declan Stennis, in the hall, and just what Hermione wanted her to do.

"Your aunt wants you to spy on people?" Logan said, looking doubtful about this whole plan. "Like be an informant? I don't think that's a great plan."

"It's an awesome plan!" Natalie countered, looking excited, that old mischievous spark back in her eyes. "It's like being a secret agent. Can I spy too?"

"Well, I don't think – " said Lily. She saw the shadow in his eyes and knew what he was thinking: _No more funny things in the Owlery, promise._ "Logan, it's just keeping my eyes open. I'm not going to…I'm not planting a bomb or anything."

Wayne mused, "If you are, do it before Potions so we can get out of that class. Just don't do it during Quidditch tryouts. We have what, five spots open on the team? I'm going to shoot for one."

"You are?" Lily said, suddenly forgetting all about spying on anyone. "I was…er, going to also."

"Well, more to go around. Probably half the house's going to try out when the whole damn team's basically open."

Lily excused herself to the loo as the countryside gave way to the boggy slop of moors and lochs. The sky overhead grew dark with the gray tarp of stratus clouds, and a light drizzle splattered the train windows with the _pit-pit-pit_ of the chilly rain of the late British summer. On the way back from the toilet she ran into a cart full of sweets, snacks, and other edibles for sale, from Every-Flavor Beans and Sugar Quills to corned beef sandwiches and even nutritional fare. The old, hunched woman who had pushed the cart in Lily's first two years wasn't back, however. In her place was the man Lily had almost run over on the platform, the bald, average-in-every-way man with gray eyes and the scarlet jerkin that made him look like a medieval squire lost in time.

He smiled at her as she stepped by. "Fancy anything from the cart, miss?"

"'S alright," Lily said.

"That's alright," said the man, picking up a Chocolate Frog package and turning it over in his hands. "I know how it goes. You eat your favorite treat over and over and eventually you forget why you liked it so much in the first place. Then it's off to find some new novelty to indulge in. It's like reading a story that goes around and around but never says anything new, because you've read the same story a dozen times already. Want to try something new, then? Perhaps you'd like to sample information, instead."

Lily stopped dead in her tracks. When she turned back, the snack cart was gone, the man alone in the hall. "What did you say?" she asked, her voice hollow and thin.

The man peeked into the nearest compartment and shrugged. "Strange coincidence. This train is jam-packed and yet here we are, in front of an empty compartment. In fact, it seems like every compartment in this car is empty. How funny."

Lily reached for her wand, but the man laughed away her concern: "Is it that bad to chat in today's paranoid society? Times have gotten strange indeed. I won't take much of your time, Lily Potter, and if you want to leave right now, go right ahead. I'm not a hostage-taker. I'm a simple traveler, heading from London to Hogsmeade."

She wanted to leave alright. The disappearing cart, the empty cabins, the fact that no one walked through the hall – this all felt strange. Yet Lily couldn't pass up seeing what he had to say.

"Who are you?" she asked. "I don't think you're a simple traveler."

"You would be wrong. I value honesty. Want to sit?"

"We can stand. Who are you besides a traveler, then?"

He nodded. "A lot more interesting question. Well, I travel because like with food and books, partaking in the same thing over and over again is boring. So I go from place to place and see new things. But eventually a man can see most everything in the world that's rooted to the ground, given enough time. Not so with people, however. There's always new babies born and new stories being written. Maybe they sound similar, but they're from different viewpoints, which I think is what makes the difference."

"How's your summer been?" he asked, glancing out the window with a nonchalant expression, his voice light and airy, like a scholar asking a routine academic question.

Lily regarded him with suspicion. "Fine."

"Really, I meant what I said about honesty. It's a disappearing trait these days. How about this? I'll tell you something interesting, but you have to do something as well. I'm a huge fan of fair business."

"Do what?"

"Keep an open mind about the people you think you know," the man said with a friendly smile. "I like interesting people, and you piqued my interest when you ended up in a fight against one Sion Redgrave at Hogwarts. It seems you have ended up in a situation far above your age and skills, yet here you are. I think that's extremely interesting, worth my time here at least, and it would be so boring to see you blindly led about by the people you falsely think you know. Say, one Jurre Vos."

Lily frowned and backed up to the car door. She had _not_ expected this kind of a conversation, especially not from a complete stranger. "Professor Vos is fine. He's a good teacher and my friend."

"See, that's what I'm talking about. An open mind, Lily, not a closed one. Jurre Vos, Sion Redgrave, and Alanis Fell are a trio that goes around and around and around, three people that are neither good nor evil but caught up in some purgatory in between, each one running from demons, clashing, making up, scheming. They are, suffice to say, extremely interesting people. But part of the fun of watching them is to wonder when they're lying and when they're telling the truth. I'm not omniscient; I'm just a traveler, I can only guess as to what's behind some of the things they do. You're largely in my camp. You're just a student, but as it so appears, you've become Jurre Vos's favorite student. If you don't mind me saying so, Lily, apprentices are easily brainwashed by their mentors."

"Alright, then what's your information? Say I distance myself from Professor Vos – "

"Oh, no, no! Not distance! That'd be a complete waste. I'm just telling you to think for yourself."

"Fine. What's your part?"

He smiled. "I'm going to give you the summary of a story, a novel one for you. Once I met a man with no name. He was old but a capable fighter and an expert academic. He had no ambitions in the world except to learn more to the point of addiction. Eventually he stepped too far, however, and began to shed more than just his needs and wants. He shed almost everything human about him, until he became something near-unknowable to people like you and I. But an addiction doesn't stop just because one has neglected their humanity. It's a sickness of the mind, and his mind was sharp, even if torn between the rational and the bizarre. Eventually, as time went on and long after we were on speaking terms, he took three apprentices. Interesting ones."

"This man with no name, if he's even a man anymore, took on the name Genseric around his three apprentices. Interesting choice, given that he poached the name from the Vandal king who sacked Rome in the 400s. So there you have it. Now if Jurre Vos or Alanis Fell speaks of their mentor, you have a brief understanding of who he is."

Lily stepped back, feeling nauseous. This wasn't a coincidental meeting, she was sure of it, and this man was no traveler. "I don't trust you for a minute," she said. _He wants honesty? There you go_. "And I don't think I should."

"Well of course not!" he laughed, chortling like she'd made a good joke. "That's what I asked of you, right? What good is it to keep your eyes open and watch something as flaccid as the Ministry of Magic when you've glimpsed something far stranger? Trusting blindly is idiocy."

"I thought you liked honesty?"

"I do. Now it's up to you to determine if I'm being honest about that or not."

Lily crossed her arms and sighed. This conversation was getting frustrating. "Somehow I don't think we're going to walk away and never see each other again."

He pondered the statement. "Well, that's up to you, really. We might. We might not. I certainly can't give you a timetable. That'd be predictable, and predictable is dull."

"What do I call you? You never said who you are."

He laughed again, softer this time, barely more than a whisper. "The last group of friends I traveled with called me Dolos. It's not my name though. You see, I too am a man with no name. I suppose you can call me whatever you want. Don't tell me in advance, though, I like surprises"

The man – Dolos? Or just the man – waved Lily away towards the next car. She took the hint, pulling open the door and stepping into the midst of a number of fourth-year Ravenclaws deep in conversation in the hall. Suddenly thinking up one last question, Lily opened the door and looked back into the car.

A group of laughing Slytherins stood around, one of them glancing at Lily as if to ask, _why are you staring?_ The man with no name and the empty car were gone.


	31. Hogwarts's New Arrivals

_**Thanks for the review, Psych0Geek – fair point regarding Harry v the Ministry. Looks like my intention with that chapter didn't convey well; something I can keep in mind for future ones. Here we go with a chapter setting up goodies for later as Hogwarts kicks off another year…shorter chapter for once.**_

* * *

"This class is Defense Against the Dark Arts, and I want to put my emphasis on the defense part, not the dark arts part. But sometimes the best defense is a good offense – so for you all, this year I'll be showing you a number of spells you can master that have helped me out in a big way as an Auror. Useful against dark wizards, against dark creatures, against regular old crazies even, but remember that none of this stuff is fun and games in action."

Professor Corner sized up the first-year Ravenclaws in Lily's first class of the fall term. She'd not concentrated one bit on school and Hogwarts activities during the feast, instead thinking the whole time about her unusual run-in on the train. It had seen like a dream or a memory, something that she couldn't quite recall happening to the exact detail, but one that felt real enough in hindsight. It had bothered her through the night, and now she was stifling yawns just when she needed to focus on actual schoolwork.

"Hexing McLaggen would be a fun game in action," Natalie murmured to Lily from the aisle across from her seat. "Do you think he'll let us practice on each other? I want to jinx somebody and win house points at the same time."

Corner ignored her, although whether it was because he hadn't heard or because he was showing some favor after being named the head of Ravenclaw house, Lily didn't know. "I thought it might be a bad idea to have everyone blasting everyone right off the bat, so I'm going to show off a bit," he said, pulling out his wand. "I'll give a little demonstration of a couple of the spells you'll learn through the end of the year. I'm also going to need a victim for this first one. Evie, why don't you come up here?"

Evie blushed, her whole face going scarlet as she tromped up to the front of the room. Lily looked on, stunned: She'd expected Professor Corner to give his daughter an easy pass through the class. Instead, Evie huddled her hands together as if she expected something bad to happen.

"So for a beginner, an easy spell to get out of a fight quickly and without any harm done is to stun your opponent," Corner said. "Stunning's a core part of any capable wizard's arsenal. It's an easy spell to learn and easy to cast once you know the details of it. Watch."

Evie's eyes bulged. "Wait, Dad – "

Professor Corner didn't pay attention. With a downward flick of his wand, he belted out, " _Stupefy!_ " A scarlet flash smacked his daughter square in the chest, sending her hurtling back onto the floor, knocked out cold. Across the aisle, Natalie and Wayne did a poor job stifling their laughter. Lily wanted to join in as she felt a moment of glee at seeing Evie taken down a notch, but Logan's gloomy look at the stunned girl stopped her.

"That was excessive," he murmured under his breath, more to himself than anyone.

"Logan, you're making me feel guilty for liking it," Lily said, frowning at him in the seat next to her.

"He could give his own kid a chance to defend herself."

Logan's view wasn't the majority opinion in the class, however: Even Evie's best friends Kaya and Marie let out little giggles as Professor Corner strolled over and revived her. "Reviving's an important little thing we'll take a look at as well," he said, pulling his daughter to her feet. "Terrible landing, Evie. Your future in gymnastics is dead on arrival."

Amir Khoury snorted in the far corner of the room. Professor Corner noticed, smiled, and mocked a little bow at the reception. Evie looked as if she were on the verge of dying of embarrassment as she stomped back to her desk at the front of the room. "Amir, may I see your wand for a moment?"

"My wand?" he said, the laughter catching in his throat. "Uh, sure, sir."

As soon as he pulled it out, Professor Corner flicked his wrist and said, " _Expelliarmus!_ " Amir's wand want flying, and he caught in his outstretched hand, flicking it over before tossing it back. "Disarming. Also real useful, but a lot harder to master. I knew a lot of people struggling with it in the fifth year when I was in school – blimey, I did, too. Need another volunteer now. You in the back – name?"

Logan looked up as Professor Corner called him. He glanced at Lily and said, "Logan Howe."

"Right, Logan. You're doing the attacking this time. Think up something and launch it at me – and be creative about it. We're all Ravenclaws here, we can do better than a boring old run-of-the-mill joke hex. Attack me with something out of the box."

Logan looked as if he didn't like this, his brow creased, his eyes dark. He stared down at the side of Sara Garner's desk for one moment, then, as Professor Corner stood off at the front of the room, he whipped his wand up and said, " _Lumos Solem!_ "

His wand flashed with a jet of blinding white light. Professor Corner threw up his own defense, shouting " _Protego!"_ and absorbing the flash with a blue magical shield – right as Logan picked a piece of chewed gum off of the side of Sara's desk and threw it at him. Corner grabbed it out of thin air at the last moment, looking down at the sticky pink goo and up at Logan with a wry frown. Evie snapped her head around to look at Logan with a shocked expression that screamed _, Are you trying to get detention for a month?_

Instead, Corner burst out laughing.

"Alright, I didn't actually expect that," he chortled, pitching the wad of gum out the open classroom window. "10 points to Ravenclaw for originality, Mr. Howe. That's the kind of house spirit you all should take a little inspiration from. As a side note, that spell's also bloody useful. Maybe he just shot a blast of light at me, but in a dark alley or a basement when you're fighting an intruder, it can blind them to give you a quick getaway, or line up for a takedown of your own. Creative thinking in a pinch. Also a Ravenclaw thing."

"And I wonder where you would've used that spell before," Lily mumbled under her breath as Logan sat down.

He shrugged. "I could've pitched a dungbomb at him if you'd given me one."

Lily smiled.

She headed down to her first lunch back at Hogwarts in a good mood: Defense wasn't going to be so bad after all. Lily'd never been much good at learning defensive spells outside of her makeshift offensive fire-making charm – her feeble attempts at casting a stunning spell had gone nowhere since her first year, even after Professor Vos had tried to help her out – but if Professor Corner was happy with Logan chucking gum at him…well, stupid things like _that_ she could do.

"Lily, you can laugh at Evie getting stunned, it's funny," Natalie chided her on their way to the Great Hall. "If she didn't take everything personally she'd laugh too. Everyone knows she's smart, no one thinks she's an imbecile because her dad taught her a lesson."

"Well, it's just…I feel kind of bad for her, the way she looked all hurt," Lily said, trying to repress a smile. "Alright, it's kind of funny, yeah. It's just a little underhanded."

Natalie smirked and shoved her as they stepped down to the castle ground floor. A suit of armor waved a sword at her as she did: "That sort of behavior is unbecoming of a lady, miss! Apologize to the young damsel!"

"Are you going to rust in anger if I don't?" Natalie asked him.

Lily laughed. It felt like Hogwarts again: Woefully chivalrous suits of armor, launching spells in class, kids knocked out as part of a lesson, scrumptious smells wafting out of the Great Hall, and Natalie making stupid jokes, fully back to the impish and sprightly girl Lily had remembered from all the way back during the boat ride after she'd stepped off the Hogwarts Express for the first time.

They hurried towards the Great Hall's entrance to dig in to lunch, but before they got there, Lily stopped at someone calling her name: "Ah, Ms. Potter, a pleasant surprise! We meet again – and I thought I wouldn't have much to see, stopping in to Hogwarts so early in the term."

She turned. Just inside the towering entrance to the castle stood Declan Stennis, the chief of the Department of Magical Education Lily'd seen in the Ministry, the one Headmaster Maribor had looked ready to decapitate. He wore a tight-fitting black and gold tunic that ill-matched his portly frame. The man had coiffed his previously mop-like head of hair, it looking now more like a shiny bronze crown, the styled tips drifting slightly in the warm late summer air that blew in through the open castle entrance. Around his neck he wore a great, gaudy golden pendant in the shape of an eight-pointed sun.

"Um…" Lily let her greeting trail off as she looked at Natalie with an unsure expression. Her friend looked confused for a moment before a flash of realization took over. Natalie's eyes bulged and glinted with an eager spark: _Is this the time we get to be spies?_ "Nat, can you save me a seat?"

Natalie's face fell. "Oh, alright, fine," she grumbled, slouching off towards the Great Hall but looking back every three or four paces, like she expected Lily to hit Stennis with the Imperius Curse at any moment.

Lily knew better. She knew what to do: _Play along._ _Play friends_. "It's, er, unexpected, but really great to see you," she chirped, doing her best to plaster a smile across her face. "You're, um, is this part of your job?"

"In the broad sense, of course! I look over education, and Hogwarts gives the best magical education in the world!" Stennis said, leading Lily outside to the castle threshold and watching over the sun-kissed grounds. "Ah – that there is an oddity I have heard about but never seen with my own eyes. A giant squid lives in the Black Lake, correct?"

Lily nodded, but she had a lurching feeling as she watched a long, black tentacle reach out and snare three ducks desperately taking off from the lake surface, dragging them down into the water in a flash of life and death. _Well, it_ could _be the giant squid…_

"A beautiful sight, if somewhat somber," Stennis said, sounding anything but somber as he pointed out towards a great white monument on the shores of the lake. "Certainly you know of Albus Dumbledore and his tomb given your father's great friendship with the man. A wonderful Headmaster. I hope to see a man half as wise hold the position in my time in this post."

Lily held back the urge to say something in Maribor's defense. As brutal and blunt as the man could be, he'd squared off against Sion without a hint of fear. That counted for something. "Do you not like Headmaster Maribor?"

"Oh, don't get me wrong, he is a powerful wizard, a strong man, yes, but perhaps not what one might envision as Headmaster of a school. I never took John Maribor of all people to be good with young wizards and witches," he said. "But there we go. I'm here to get a better look at the school, not judge things. Open-mindedness is the Ravenclaw trait, yes; I was a Gryffindor during my time here."

 _Not the first person this week to tell me to be open-minded_. "It might not be too late to change houses if you find the Sorting Hat."

He chuckled. "A joke, a joke, yes. A good one."

"It seems like it's a lot of work to send an…an important figure out here just to take a look at Hogwarts," Lily said, stressing _important_.

"Well, it's a bit more nuanced," said Stennis, opening his arms wide as if addressing an audience. "I will admit to you, Ms. Potter, the Ministry is in a great deal of debt to Gringotts and the goblins. Cutting costs and tightening the belt is something we have to do, a sort of communal sacrifice. But not to interfere with the school by and large, no. When your father was a student a more impotent Ministry at the time sent a wolf in sheep's clothes to report on the school, one Dolores Umbridge. She turned the school upside-down for the worse and now is a lesson we are taking to heart. Heavy-handedness isn't the way to go about doing things right."

"Maybe if you talked to the Headmaster about it like that, he'd listen to you. It sounds like a good reason for coming."

He grinned. "That is quite optimistic, but perhaps it will be so. For now I watch."

Lily nodded and gazed out at the shimmering surface of the lake, ripples still bouncing to and fro where the squid – or Vos's tentacled terror, who could tell – had snatched the ducks. Stennis sounded like a defeatist, like someone who only half-believed in the reason he was here. If anything that brightened her spirits: Some passionate, self-righteous zealot coming to impose themselves of the school would've been a nightmare to suck up to, like drawing blood from a stone. Lily imagined herself pulling teeth and fraying her nerves completing Hermione's assignment. Instead, Stennis seemed decidedly average, just another man doing just another job.

She could work with that. This was more like drawing blood from a goat.

"That pendant's really nice," Lily said, experimenting with charms of the not-so-magical type. "Is that a family heirloom or something?"

"No, nothing of the sort," Stennis said, holding the palm-sized golden sun in his hand. "I received this as a gift from a good friend, the Deputy Minister of Magical Law Enforcement for Germany's Ministry. He tells me it is an old Assyrian symbol of sorcery, and that it was told to glow around old, arcane magic. He must be mistaken, as it lit up the moment I stepped foot on the grounds. A curious thing."

"Must be," said Lily with a smile. She shot a look back out at the lake. _It'll be glowing a lot more_ , _sir, sorry to say. Don't come to me with questions. I'm the one doing the asking._


	32. Third-Year Trials

_**Thanks for the review, Mermaid1108! And yeah, I think I might be moving a little fast for the website's updater. In this chapter, not all of Lily's new teachers are so relaxed, and she takes a step towards something new in her Hogwarts career. Also, we take a gander at a class we never saw in the original seven books. Plus Quidditch returns.**_

* * *

Stennis meant what he said about not getting involved at Hogwarts. Lily didn't so much as see the man over the rest of her first week back, much less have another chat to get to know him better. This greatly disappointed Natalie, who'd been ready to investigate some grand conspiracy only for Lily to let her down with her description of the Ministry man. Bureaucrats and boring administrators on routine assignments didn't make for good mysteries.

Hogwarts' professors wasted no time diving into their curriculums. Stern Professor Piper in Potions worked the third-year Ravenclaws hard from the get-go, having them try out brewing Inhalation Potions in their very first class – complicated mixtures allowing a witch or wizard to hold their breath for extreme amounts of time, but which required over thirty different ingredients and a number of extremely specific steps. Even Lily struggled despite thriving in Potions in her two prior years, her blobby, neon-yellow, rancid gunk of an attempt earning an ugly grimace and a failing grade from Piper.

"How do you make your potions work?" she lamented to Hugo as they left the class. "You got the only one that looked right."

Her cousin shrugged. "I don't know, I just do. It just comes natural. And I follow the instructions."

"Do you get hints or something because your dormitory's in the dungeons and so is the classroom?"

"Lily, Piper's Hufflepuff's head, not Slytherin's. I think she can't stand our house. No way she'd give us help."

It wasn't Lily's own stressful class, however. Professor Teague started the class on Engorgement Charms, leading to a disastrous bursting earthworm on behalf of one of the Hufflepuffs, a bored-looking, curly-haired boy named Damon Jordan who looked much more awake after splattering giant worm innards all over the classroom. Even Professor Yaro kicked his Transfiguration classes into high gear, snickering as the crate Lily was to turn into a heron merely sprouted bright blue wings and flew out the window.

"There is only one way to solve this sort of conundrum, as I see it," Yaro told the class as the crate flew out over the grounds. "Half-measures will not do. _Confringo!_ "

His wand sounded with a _bang_ and the crate exploded in a violent blast, red flame blooming in the air as if he'd struck it with a missile.

Wayne looked amazed. "Can we study that spell instead, professor?"

"I will say we can try on the poltergeist the next time he dumps red paint all over my office," Yaro agreed. "As a side note, I will not be having office hours any time in the next few days."

By the time Lily made it to Friday morning and her first Ancient Runes class, she felt ready to sleep away the whole coming weekend. As Wayne and Natalie headed outside into the sun for Care of Magical Creatures, she and Logan tromped up to the westernmost hallway on the castle's fourth floor, to an isolated little bronze-inlaid wooden door flanked by a pair of torches and built into a stone alcove.

"At least it's cozy," remarked Lily. She wasn't wrong in terms of her class: Out of the seventy-odd students in the third year, only nine others waited outside the class with them. Trent Thorpe and Sara Garner joined her as the only other Ravenclaws; she recognized, to her disappointment, Alroy McLaggen and his friend Raimie Abdul ("Natalie's gonna be happy she skipped this one," Logan whispered to her) from Gryffindor, but she wasn't familiar with the other five students from Hufflepuff and Slytherin.

The door opened on its own after five minutes of loitering outside. Lily stepped in, not sure what to expect.

She felt like she'd stepped into some ancient vault. Slit-like windows and soft torches burning with cyan flames provided the only light in the dusky room, but a high, arching ceiling made the space feel much larger than the small classroom floor. Sixteen desks arranged in four rows of four took up a good three-quarters of the room – apparently Ancient Runes wasn't a popular class for any year, not just Lily's. Towering bookshelves surrounded the two adjacent walls to the door, filled with ancient tomes covered in strange, vein-like writing, some of which glowed and twinkled as if illuminated by starlight, others smoking or glowering with a subterranean darkness.

A colossal blackboard dominated the front of the class, but made of solid black obsidian rather than gray-green slate. Before the class stood a solid granite slab of a teaching desk, upon it two glittering candlesticks holding a pair of white candles flickering with the same cyan fire as the wall torches. A short, middle-aged witch with curly red-blonde hair stood behind the desk with her hands clasped in front of her. She had wide eyes that flickered in the firelight and a serious, downcast face, heavily brushed with makeup. Lily could spot several subtle but visible scars sticking through, however – _from the war Dad fought in against Voldemort and the dark wizards, maybe?_ _Or some dangerous beast?_

"Good morning," the woman said in a high but flat voice. She waved her wand at the door, shutting it with a loud, low _thud_. "This is your first class in studying runology. The subject is equal parts application, translation, and analysis, and much more than learning symbols and their meanings. Studying runes can unlock ancient writing, allow you to learn from great minds in history, and open all sorts of paths for you, but only if you're willing to study and work hard. If you're not, none of you are lasting very long in this class, and I will not slow down any student's learning to conform to someone who won't study and prepare."

Lily felt a pang of nerves. _Not a great sign_.

The professor went through calling names, pausing momentarily at "Aron Goldstein" of Hufflepuff and at Lily's name, rubbing one of her facial scars and frowning at the latter.

"My name is Marietta Edgecombe," the woman said, tilting up her chin and appraising the class with downcast eyes, "and I want to see how many of you have learned to prepare adequately for a difficult subject over your first two years. Don't pull out your books. Mr. Alroy McLaggen, you first – which wizard is traditionally credited with the founding of modern runological study?

For all his usual swagger, Alroy looked completely out of it at the question. "I have no idea, Professor."

"Hmm," Professor Edgecombe murmured, looking displeased. "Next one. Ms. Elri Keith – what differentiates a runic script from a mere lost or ancient language?"

A small, black-haired Slytherin girl jumped at her name being called, but she steadied herself and said with a shaky, tiny voice, "Runes have magical properties when arranged in certain sequences, and – and – and when inscribed on certain magical items?"

Edgecombe stuck out her lower lip, raised an eyebrow, and said, "That's close; not exact, but close. At least you have footing. Next one. Mr. Logan Howe – what ancient ruin opened up modern runologists' eyes to the secrets hidden within runes?"

Logan scrunched up his face as if to say, _Are you kidding me? How should I know?_ "Pyramids?"

"Those are _ruins_ , multiple, not _ruin_ , singular," Professor Edgecombe said, her voice growing harsh. "And wrong to boot. Next one. Ms. Lily Potter – where are the earliest known examples of ancient runes inscribed?"

Lily shrank into her seat and glanced over at Logan. _Help!_ "I don't know, Professor."

"Then you're not prepared either," Edgecombe came down on her sharply. "Next one – "

Class continued like that for several minutes until Professor Edgecombe cut them off with a dark scowl. "Eleven of you here taking perhaps the hardest course in this school, even if it's only an introduction, and only one of you – one – has bothered to read the first chapter of your book, despite opting to take this course. Voluntarily. Five points to Slytherin for that, and five points from the rest of your houses. If the rest of you don't take this seriously, you're going to fail."

Lily and Logan walked out of the end of class in foul moods. Still feeling grumpy after a double Herbology lesson in the afternoon resulted in Natalie and McLaggen earning detention for engaging in the plant slime version of a food fight across the greenhouse, Lily stomped up the Astronomy Tower at eleven at night as tired sixth-years tromped down past her. Above, Professor Vos stood at the edge of the Astronomy portico, hurling stones off the tower and blasting them into powder with his wand.

He looked up as Lily stepped out, missing one of the rocks as it tumbled down towards the grounds below.

"Class isn't starting for a while," he said, waving his wand at the air only to realize his rock was gone. "That eager to get started?"

"What are we learning today?" Lily asked.

Vos looked up at the cloudy night sky and frowned. "Well, we're not looking at anything with this overhead. We'll be inside, galactic arms and stuff. Not much exciting for a first day. Have a good first week? We haven't talked one-on-one since…well, I was a bit drunk at the Cauldron when we had an unfortunate visitor interrupt."

Lily shrugged. She was playing this safe to determine two things: One, to gauge just how much she needed to keep her eyes open around a professor she'd trusted more than any of the others so far in her Hogwarts career, and two, whether she could put any stock in what that…man…on the train had said. She looked out over the grounds and the lake as Vos pitched another stone off the roof, her mind stuck on what she even came to hear.

"Is the octopus thing in the lake still there?" she asked at last, recalling the ducks turned into lunch while she'd spoken with Declan Stennis.

"Ya," Vos said. "It's not going anywhere. It barely even knows any of us exists. I doubled down on the magical protections, so no one's trouping down to pay a visit any time soon unless the Headmaster or I lets 'em, so the chances are zero."

Lily frowned. "What are you going to do with it now that the Headmaster didn't become Minister of Magic? Just study it forever?"

"That put a bit of a crimp on things, but I'm not worried," Vos mused, blasting another stone. "I'd rather be patient and just learn for now. When things look a little more promising, then I'll stop studying and start doing."

 _That's rather vague._ It felt to Lily like he was leaving out quite a lot of detail between the 'now' part and the 'then' part. "It just seems like the woman who…joined us in the Leaky Cauldron had an actual action plan to do something with whatever magic you guys know."

"You're not seriously taking her side, are you?" Vos said with a scowl. "Lily, you don't know Alanis Fell. She was prepared to come on strong in the tavern back in August. Ya, she looks high and mighty crusading against the Ministry in the papers and getting people who aren't rich and connected or in the Ministry itself to her side, largely because Gringotts half-buying the most powerful position in Wizarding Britain is more than a little fishy. People who aren't powerful want someone to have their back, and Alanis is charismatic. It's being in the right place at the right time. But between her and me, we're what separates leaping before you look and looking before you leap. If she had the inclination to go sailing, she'd do it immediately, even if it meant paddling a canoe out into a hurricane. I'd rather have a seaworthy ship and wait for the weather to clear. Her way's a lot sexier and flashier, but I think my way of changing things for the better is less destructive and more likely to work."

"Do you really have a plan, though?"

"Where's this coming from?" he said, looking at her with a frown. "There are a lot of things you don't know about her and me and Sion and everything that happened in the past, but a lot of it…you don't want to. I'm not trying to light the world on fire, or turn it upside-down. I just want to give it a push in the right direction so that other people can keep bettering this place after I'm gone."

Vos summoned another stone into his hand, but before he pitched it, he gave Lily a long, curious look and said, "Something bothering you?"

"Just a long week," Lily said hastily.

He seemed to accept that, shrugging and hurling his rock off the tower. "I know you want to know everything when you've seen a glimpse into some of the strange shite going on, Logan too, but…you're a good student, you have great potential, and the last thing you need is to get drawn into a bunch of messed-up people who all want to change the world but can't agree on how to do it."

Lily leaned her arms up on the battlements and stared out at the darkness. "Alanis made it sound like everyone's going to be caught up anyway."

"Well if Sion keeps trying to abduct people, maybe."

"So she was right about that? He's behind those disappearances up by Durmstrang? He and your…old mentor?" Lily said. She caught herself before she said his name, the one the man on the train had said. _Genseric_. If that was even his name.

Vos sighed. "Yeah, she's right. There are too many reports of a man named Antonin Dolohov being involved with all this. Former Death Eater. He fought your parents several times during the second war with Voldemort. Killed Alanis's entire family. Problem was, we fought him in Germany back in 2003. Defeated him, and my mentor took him…well…as a prisoner. And as a test subject."

"A test subject?"

"Lily, I'm not talking about him."

"But if – "

"No," he cut her off, looking dark. "There are things he did that nobody should know, let alone a teenager. Before you start, you haven't been dragged into things _that_ far yet. I hope that doesn't go any further."

Lily's grumpiness grew. She wanted to know. She could help, just like she was helping her aunt – and Hermione had trusted her to watch things, hadn't she? Why couldn't Vos? _Unless he's hiding something self-incriminating…_

"Why Durmstrang?" Lily mumbled.

Vos shook his head. "I dunno. The big magical schools are full of strong wizards and witches. Getting at them…well, you could learn a lot of things. Durmstrang, Beauxbatons in France, here."

 _Learning a lot of things would be important if one had an addiction to learning._ The man on the train might have been cryptic and odd, but he had been on point so far. Lily just had to sift through all the things Vos said to figure out what he really meant. "So if Durmstrang got attacked – "

"It hasn't been directly. No one put the castle to siege or anything."

"Well, if people were disappearing around it, would it happen here?"

Vos frowned, looking at Lily with a shadowy expression. "Sion wouldn't be dumb enough to repeat the same kind of intrusion, but this castle's strong in magic. There's a lot to like about this place. Maybe he does, maybe not."

* * *

Come the second weekend into the term, Lily faced a much more daunting and immediate hurdle than mysterious disappearances, however.

"You're not going to eat more?" Wayne pointed out during breakfast in the Great Hall, as Lily left her eggs and sausages almost untouched. "God, I'm starving. If Quidditch tryouts aren't 'til midday, I don't want to be all hungry."

Lily shook her head. "I'm gonna vomit."

Natalie looked at the two of them with an annoyed expression. "Stupid sports things," she muttered.

She and Logan stuck behind in the tower, but come midday, Lily hurried after Wayne onto the bright grounds. The sun was blindingly white, the sky blue and clear without a cloud in the sky, the lake pristine and gorgeous, but all Lily could think about was holding her stomach together to avoid throwing up while her nerves threatened to turn her guts upside-down.

 _It's just Quidditch. Except it's not, because James and Teddy Lupin will poke fun at you for failing when there're so many spots on the team open. Ugh, can it just be Sunday?_

"I got a good feeling about it," said Wayne, tossing his broom up in the air and catching it as they approached the Quidditch pitch. Lily had always felt excited about heading out to the pitch for a game, but now she only felt dread. "Five spots open out of seven people? Hey, those're good odds."

Lily eyed his broom nervously. It was a sleek Meteor-D, the same make of James's swift broom but one model later, geared for superb straight-line speed and fast adjustments. Her own Falcon Mach 6 was nothing to laugh at, but built more for agility and rapid turning. If it came down to a race, Wayne would smoke her. _On the other hand, he's still fairly new to the sport. Muggle-born and all that_. _Only two years of learning Quidditch, whereas I've had my whole life._ "Are you going out for Seeker? You look like a good Seeker."

"Nah," he said. "Gonna go for Chaser, since there're two spots. Up my chances. You?"

 _Ugh_. Lily's dread doubled. "Um…oh."

"Um oh what?"

"I was…gonna do the same."

Wayne laughed. "Well, good luck. That looks like a nice broom. Your whole family does it, right? I mean, half the Gryffindor team's your family, practically. Runs in the blood and all."

Lily blushed. "Maybe."

"Yeah, whatever. Watch you crush everyone, and then afterwards, you'll be all 'I wasn't _that_ good.'"

"James always kicks my butt when we play as a family. I'm not great."

"See? You're doing it already. Jeez, Lily, have a little confidence. Last year you were a hundred percent sure you were going to fail Charms, and nope."

 _That was different_ , Lily thought, but it was no use arguing. How could her friend stay so optimistic in times like this?

Two tall, blue-robed figures stood with their brooms out on the pitch as Lily and Wayne entered. A smattering of other Ravenclaws stood about, brooms in hand, but not the hundred Lily had imagined would show up for such a huge rebuilding of the team. One of the tall figures, a towering, broad-shouldered boy with dark skin, black hair cut so short he looked bald, and sunken eyes, pointed towards a pile of blue-and-bronze jerseys laid out in a box. "Pick one, new guys," he said to Lily and Wayne.

Lily dug out an old, mud-splattered uniform with a white number seven emblazoned on the front and back. Dirt had dug so deeply into the fabric that the number was almost more brown than white. It hung so limply off her shoulders she was afraid it'd fall off in the air.

The boy facing them all frowned and said to his companion, a thin but sinewy girl with long hair dyed a shocking blood red, "Is this all we get, really?"

She sighed. "It's what, forty or so of them? Start praying."

The girl stepped up after making sure nobody else was coming, cleared her throat, and boomed, "I'm Vale Leng, this is Jamie Beaufort, we're both in our sixth year, and we're sick of sucking at Quidditch. If you're sick of it too, great. If you're happy with third- and fourth-place finishes in the standings, get out." When no one left, she frowned. "We'll see who's serious in a bit. I'm a Chaser. There're two spots for Chaser and one for Keeper. I'll be trying out everyone for those. Jamie's a Beater, and he'll put Beaters and Seekers through the paces. Keepers and Seekers up to bat first. The rest of you, chill in the stands and don't screw around if you want to stick around."

 _I bet you love Ancient Runes_ , Lily thought as she and Wayne tromped over to the stands with twenty-five or so of the assembled mob. Vale meant business, but Lily had her doubts that they were going to turn the team around in one year with such a rebuilding job ahead. The year before Ravenclaw had eked out a third-place finish ahead of a Hufflepuff squad that had turned dreadful in a hurry, with Slytherin and its knockout Seeker, Marcellus Southwick, stomping all over Gryffindor early to cruise to the Quidditch Cup. While Lily considered her cousin Rose to be the best single Quidditch player in the school, Slytherin had added a burly Keeper who looked like a rhinoceros to its lineup, adding defensive punch that had stymied Gryffindor's potent offense, much to Rose's dismay.

"I think I'm going to barf," Lily moaned to Wayne as they watched Jamie Beaufort obliterate one Seeker hopeful with a well-aimed Bludger. "I wish we could go first and get it over with."

"Just throw up on someone else if you do. It's removing competition. KO by projectile vomit," Wayne suggested. A freckled girl on Lily's other side scooted away from her with a look of revulsion.

Lily was too busy holding her face in her hands to see when Vale and Jamie dismissed the Keepers and Seekers, respectively, bringing up the next crop. Wayne had to half-drag her out onto the field as she clenched her teeth and held onto her broom for dear life, afraid of dropping it and being eliminated for clumsiness. As the Beaters broke off, Vale pulled them and the other Chaser hopefuls onto one half of the field, before the three hooped goalposts nearest the Forbidden Forest. They looked to Lily as if they'd been heightened three times over. _Oh, god._

Vale picked the bright red Quaffle up and pointed at the group: "Everyone up on your brooms. We're going to take one length of the pitch, up and back. You can't do that, just get out now, because I'm not bringing you onboard."

 _I'm going to fall off. I'm going to fall off_. Lily clenched her teeth to stop her jaw from jittering, tossed a leg over her broom, and kicked off from the ground.

It was a good thing Vale had given her warning: One small boy didn't even make it five feet up before he tumbled off of his broom. Vale waved him away with a look of irritation and he turned, dragging his broom after him, tears in his eyes. "Alright," she said as the remaining tryouts lined up abreast across the field. "Up and back, your own pace. Go."

Wayne exploded off the line, shooting out faster than anyone else and rocketing down the pitch. Lily's eyes almost burst from her sockets. _When did he learn to do that?!_ She felt her chances sinking already as she zoomed down the pitch, Wayne already on the way back, executing his turn faster than anyone else. Lily's own broom snaked around the opposite goals in a tight U-turn and she accelerated the moment she righted herself about, ahead of most of the group but behind two or three others as well. Another boy behind her crashed headlong into a post and narrowly clung to his broom with both hands.

"Sorry, mate," Jamie called from up where he was letting the Bludgers free. "Better look next try-out."

 _God._ One mistake and she was doomed. Lily had thought seventeen other people contending for the Chaser spots hadn't looked like much, but now with two gone already, the hurdle looked a lot tougher to clear.

"Alright, still got sixteen of you," Vale bellowed as the last Chaser hopeful reached her on the run-around. "Here's what's next. We're gonna go as a group around in circles about the pitch, passing the Quaffle to each other in a line. Here's the catch: If you're at the end of the line closest to the edge of the pitch, when you get the Quaffle, fly to the innermost spot in the line, then throw it to whoever's next to you. This is about teamwork, so don't do anything stupid. Up."

Lily sided next to Wayne, desperately wiping her sweaty hands off on her trousers as they went off. She'd picked a good spot: Wayne was a natural with the Quaffle, picking it out of the air from the boy next to him even on errant throws and then rifling the ball to Lily right where it had to be, sometimes barely even holding it before sending it on its way. She had to secure it every time she grabbed it, careful not to screw up and drop the Quaffle, before hurling it on to the girl next to her.

"Speed it up!" Vale yelled, circling around them now and watching for mistakes.

Sweat dripped down Lily's temple. Wayne bulleted no-look passes square into her chest, one time so hard and fast she barely had time to react before the Quaffle was in her hands. Vale didn't dismiss anyone after they all landed, but she sized up a few of them with less-than-satisfied looks.

She tossed the Quaffle from one hand to the other and said, "Here's next. Pair up, eight groups of two. You're gonna fly with me down the pitch, tossing the ball back and forth between us, and one of you'll score when we get to the other goals. This is still teamwork, not being a selfish idiot. If you hog the ball, you're easy prey for the other Beaters, and if that's you, you're not making the team. Pair up."

Lily hurried to pair with Wayne before someone else grabbed him. The other Chaser hopefuls had figured out by now that he was a virtual lock for one of the spots: No one else had the same fluidity and speed with the Quaffle, and he handled his broom like he'd grown up with it.

"I dunno about you, but I'm happy our group went second," Wayne told her, looking up at the stands where the Keepers and Seekers watched on. "Just waiting like that until these two announce everyone on the team at the end? That's brutal."

"Where'd you learn to be so good at Quidditch?" Lily asked, her stomach doing loops as Vale took off with the first pair.

Wayne snorted as one of the Chaser hopefuls missed the goals by a mile. "My dad signed me up for basketball when I was little. Played it all the way up to getting into Hogwarts. Still play it during the summer with Muggle friends."

"Is that the Muggle sport you keep trying to teach Logan?"

"Yeah. Lost cause. He's never going to get it."

"Why didn't he try out? He's big enough to be a Beater."

Wayne shrugged. "Logan's more the artsy type. I dunno. Right now I'd rather not go into it."

They were the third pair summoned, soaring into the air as Vale tossed the Quaffle idly up and down, looking frustrated after the last two groups had less-than-stellar showings.

If keeping up with Wayne had been a struggle, staying with both him _and_ Vale took all of Lily's concentration. Those two moved the Quaffle at light speed, the ball a red blur flashing back and forth, staying put for only a fraction of a second before moving on. Lily lost it once, the ball slipping out of her hand, but she kicked it up in the air with her foot and batted it back to Vale with her fist. As they approached the first goal, Wayne grabbed Lily's off-center pass, head-faked at the center goal, motioned with his empty right hand at the lower goal, and pitched the Quaffle straight through the left.

"Nice!" Vale called, diving and snatching the Quaffle a foot off the ground. "Other goal, let's go."

Lily took her handoff and rocketed the other direction, her sweaty hands fumbling the Quaffle but keeping just enough of a hold to steady it. She sent it off to Wayne, caught it on his cross-pitch two-handed lob pass, and zipped in at the goals. Envisioning an imaginary Keeper blocking her path, she darted at the center goal before cutting right, switching hands at the last instant and blasting the ball back into the center hoop.

 _Hope that was alright_.

Up and down the pitch they went before Vale called up the next group. Lily's heart pounded and her head heart with anticipation. Inside her mind her thoughts waged a pitched battle: _Wayne clearly outshone you. The first person who does somewhat good will beat you. But I scored every time I had the shot! Doesn't matter. Done-zo._

Jamie and the Beaters finished up as Vale took the eighth and final pair of Chaser hopefuls down the pitch. The two vets huddled together for a moment before Vale said, "We're gonna announce everything in a second, but we need to see the Chasers in more of an in-game scenario. I'm calling four of you up to see for the two spots – the other twelve of you, thanks for coming, but bye. Let's see if I can get these names – Wayne, Mary, Alfie, and Lily."

If anything, the announcement that Lily had made the final four made her even _more_ nervous. She stepped up with one hand clenched over her stomach, eyeing her competition. The other girl, Mary, was broad and stumpy, more like a Beater than a Chaser, but she'd shown off impressive agility up during the last round. Alfie was a thinner sort, even wirier than Wayne, with a mop of mousy brown hair that flew all around in the breeze. He had a cannon for an arm, though, which made Lily even more nervous when Vale and Jamie paired them together.

"Here's how it works," yelled Vale over the booing from the other Chaser hopefuls who had stuck around to voice their displeasure at missing the cut. "It's two-a-side. I'm playing Keeper, and Jamie's gonna smack Bludgers indiscriminately. One side tries to score on me, the other tries to defend me. If you take the Quaffle away while on defense, take it up to midfield and then your team becomes the attackers. Got it?"

Lily nodded, clamping her eyes shut to steady herself. _Why couldn't you pair me with Wayne again?_ Facing off against him looked like an impossible task.

She burst up into the air, her teammate Alfie beside her, both starting on offense. They eyed each other with suspicion – two hopefuls both cooperating and competing. As Jamie dropped the Quaffle down to Alfie, he jetted off to the right side of the pitch instantly, Lily shooting off to keep pace.

 _Gimme the fucking ball!_

Alfie didn't. Confronted with a Bludger soaring at his face, he juked left, only to have Wayne soar in and swipe the Quaffle away. Mary picked it off with ease they swept around to midfield, facing off on offense as Lily swung about to defend. Her broom was slick with sweat and her thighs burned from clenching her broom so tightly, but she couldn't let up now.

Mary mowed down the center as Alfie converged, Lily hanging back. She dished to Wayne below, and he zipped past Alfie, nearly juking Lily right off her broom as she moved to intercept. Gritting her teeth and flying about to catch up, she saw him pull right and glance left as Vale moved in to cut him off. As he launched the ball towards the center hoop, Lily leaned out and stretched her arm as far as it would go.

 _Wap!_

Her errant swipe tipped the Quaffle just enough to knock Wayne's shot off course – a good thing, since he'd knifed past Vale's defenses at the last minute.

Back and forth it went, but Lily didn't manage to score. She got close twice, once stopped as a Bludger smacked her wrist as she tried to evade Wayne, another time getting through the defense only for Vale to snatch her shot away. She felt more desperate as they went on before finally they landed without her scoring once, even as she'd knocked away several attempts on defense and had held Mary in check the entire time.

"That was nice, right?" Wayne said, dismounting and flicking dirt off of his broomstick. "Good little jaunt."

"I screwed up so bad," Lily murmured, hiding her face in her hands as she landed.

Vale and Jamie conferenced again for a minute before they conjured up a scrap of parchment and an inked quill. Jamie plastered it onto the wall of the stadium before ushering everyone down to look at it, shouting, "First practice is Tuesday. If you're on the list, be here at seven."

Lily sat rooted to her seat as the other hopefuls hurried down to the pitch. She didn't want to see. Eventually she forced herself down as a bubbly, skinny, brown-haired girl sporting the beginning of a sunburn shouted, "Seeker! I got it! Yes!"

Several others swore at her and stormed off the field. Lily approached with hesitation, her head pounding as Wayne looked on nearby with a look of amusement. He glanced at Lily as she stepped up and looked away.

The bubbly girl who'd made Seeker, a second-year named Chloe Meredith, was joined by a burly, bear of a fourth-year boy with out of control dirty blonde hair at Keeper named Royce Marlowe, along with a fifth-year girl built like a boarhound named Maisie Davies at Beater. There was Wayne at Chaser as Lily'd largely expected, and joining him and Vale –

"Ohmigod," Lily gasped, holding onto Wayne for support. "Oh my god. Oh god. How can this be happening?"

He propped her up as her knees threatened to give out. "Are you mental? Most people would be happy to get what they wanted."

"I didn't even score at that last part!"

"You're complaining at making the team? Wow. Look, you did fine, Lily. You picked me off a couple times."

She wasn't listening to him anymore, but dragging him off away from the pitch, her eyes threatening to burst with tears of surprised joy. She didn't want to make a scene in front of her new teammates, after all.


	33. Seeing For Herself

_**Thanks to mywildcharmsfor you (as guest :) ) for two great reviews! As for Scorp, more of a cameo in this chapter as I slow-burn his development – and yeah, all of this is third year. Really, I wanted Lily a little bit older and a little more capable, and advancing past second year seemed the best way to do it without throwing aside a ton of her schooling. For updating – I try to go once a day to get the vibe of a book a month (otherwise this whole story would take…years in real time…and I don't want to trap readers into waiting that long.)**_

 _ **In this chapter, the aforementioned Scorpius has an exchange with Lily while our protagonist pursues something fishy in the castle corridors…**_

* * *

For a little while, Lily felt as high as she ever had at Hogwarts. _Quidditch! On the actual house team!_ _And beating all those other hopefuls!_ While she drew scathing looks from the Chaser applicants who hadn't made the cut, most Ravenclaws were happy to turn a new leaf in Quidditch after too many years fighting with Hufflepuff to stay out of last place in the standings.

Lily'd expected teasing from her brothers given that they were now competitors on the pitch, but the day after tryouts, James strode up to her at breakfast, picked her up off of her seat, and wrapped her in an asphyxiating bear hug.

"Two Potters and two Weasleys on teams now; our cousins can't say anything!" he said, squeezing Lily so tight she thought she'd burst.

"James, I can't breathe!" she gasped.

"Knew you could do it, sis. We can go make fun of Al together."

"James!"

He dropped her onto her seat, where she blushed in embarrassment and sucked in breath. "Seriously, proud of you, Lils," he said, patting her shoulder. "Go write Mum and Dad. Now we're gonna beat the pants off of you in the spring, but do me a favor and beat Rose for a score first. She's getting all hotheaded and cocky."

"Aww," Natalie cooed after James left, "that was cute. You and your brothers are adorable."

"I don't think that's the only thing you liked," Wayne murmured between bites of sausage."

She didn't disagree. "Yup. Can you invite him back, Lily? Or up to the common room?"

"Nat, really, he's my brother!"

It wasn't long before something came around to drain away the good feelings, however. That Monday night, Lily tossed and turned in her bed, fighting off a nightmare that refused to end. She fell headlong deeper into the dream, caught in a depressing, gray-green simulacrum of her dormitory, except with none of her peers resting in their beds. Instead a thousand ghostly people drifted in and out of the bedroom , wispy, translucent, halfway between ghosts and solid human beings, each one wearing a different face and totally oblivious to Lily. The dream people varied wildly, some clad in nightgowns and modern black Hogwarts robes, others wearing fare better suited for a medieval reenactment, donning exaggerated witches' and wizards' hats and talking in an older, harsher English that Lily could only half make out.

Something else was in the dream dormitory with her as she struggled to wake up. It was icy, gray and white, its skin concrete snake scales, its form human but not quite, with a ring of bright, glowing yellow eyes circling all around its head and four skeletal, triple-jointed arms dangling from its thin shoulders. The dream room blurred and shook, like under assault from a massive earthquake, and a strong wind blew in right through the closed dormitory windows, howling like a wailing, lamenting crowd, but the nightmare thing didn't flinch. It floated on the erratic currents that cut through the dream, any legs or feet hidden beneath a gown-like shroud that hovered several inches off of the floor. It didn't attack or even talk but just _watched_ , a silent, ghastly prison warden of her nightmare that refused to let her out.

She felt exhausted when she awoke, as if she hadn't slept a wink. When she tromped down with Natalie to the common room, she found Logan dozing off in a chair, purple bags under his eyes.

"You're already tired after you just woke up?" Natalie remarked.

He shook his head. "Nah. Didn't sleep well. I've had some weird dreams the last few nights."

Lily blanched.

One night the dreams would come, always different in subtle ways; the next they'd be gone, replaced by a normal, restful night's sleep. Other students complained about nightmares and terrible sleeping, and soon yawning and fluttering eyes became the norm in every class. Troubled but with no way to get answers, Lily pushed to take her mind off of the dreams entirely. Thursday provided a break: She trooped down to the Quidditch pitch with Wayne to forget about things for a few hours, and feeling invigorated, she put together a quick letter to her parents about making the team and hustled off to the Owlery to send it off before bedtime.

She wasn't alone when she walked in. Scorpius Malfoy held onto a large, burly eagle owl, tying a thick envelope to its legs and glancing up as she entered.

"Oh, it's you," he said, turning his back to Lily.

"Are you doing something illegal?" Lily snorted, rolling her eyes and tromping up the stairs to gather Andy from his perch.

Scorpius watched her go, his expression hard to read. His silver hair glinted in the evening torchlight, a sharp contrast to the shadow bending across his high cheekbones. "I'm writing to my mum. That's not banned," he said.

"Well, fine, write to your mum," said Lily. Andy hopped up and down and pulled his legs away every time she tried to tie her letter on, and between a feisty owl and brushing so close to curfew, she was feeling frustrated. The last thing she needed was to deal with Scorpius's sniping.

"Your owl have a defect or something?" observed Scorpius. "As is, can't believe you made your house's Quidditch team. Hugo told me."

Lily scowled at him in annoyance as Andy pecked her finger. "And what's so unbelievable about that? Like to think I can't fly or something?"

"Hugo says you're all bookish. Sounds about right."

"Well, why don't you see for yourself, rather than listen to what Hugo spouts," Lily snapped. _Thanks a lot, cuz_. _Just talk bad about me behind my back_. "That would require thinking though, which is probably beyond you."

Scorpius shot her a nasty look. "That's the pretentious Ravenclaw in you coming out. So why's thinking beyond me?"

"My housemates in your year say you're a dunce."

"I could just up and call you a hypocrite, but being polite, why don't you see for yourself, rather than listen to a bunch of other tossers?"

Lily was determined to look anywhere but at Scorpius as she grabbed Andy a little too tightly, making her owl hoot in protest. The worst thing was that he was right: Rushing to judgment, even if she'd had unpleasant experiences in the past with Scorpius, only made her look like just as much as of an idiot.

"Sweet dreams, then," Scorpius scoffed as he left Lily alone in the Owlery.

She was tempted right then to call for him to wait, to ask if he, too, had been having strange nightmares. There was something else, too, but it felt funny. Scorpius was an idiot. The less she spoke with him the better. Heck, he and Rose hated each other, and wasn't that enough, even if he called Hugo his best friend?

 _Stupid git_ , thought Lily as she secured Andy at last and tied on her letter. Arms akimbo, she watched her owl fly off into the night sky, disappearing into the black as just another speck.

 _Getting late_. She had to hurry back to Ravenclaw Tower. Letting herself out of the Owlery, Lily hustled down the shadowy, torch-lit castle corridors. As she ascended a flight of stairs past a pair of old French wizards getting hilariously drunk, something blurred past the edge of her vision. She spun around just in time to see what looked like a black, smoky, shadowy cloud billowing into an entranceway a flight below her.

"Hello?" Lily called out.

No one answered her. "I completely understand, Madame," one of the portrait wizards said, hiccoughing. "I'm seein' double already!"

Ignoring him, Lily stared down, perplexed. What was that? She looked up back towards the door to Ravenclaw Tower, stuck between heading off to bed and following whatever she'd just seen, if she'd seen anything at all. _Oh, dammit, why now?_

Gritting her teeth and risking getting caught out of bed, Lily headed down.

The torches on the wall taunted her in their flickering flames as she snuck down to the fourth floor, heading after something unseen. _Keep chasing and you're going to get caught_ , they mocked. _You're chasing shadows, Lily. Imagining things_. She rounded a corner near a snoring suit of armor to see the shadow cloud whip around a bend. A tail of floating black sand trailed after it, curling about the wall as the shadow hurried away.

She wasn't seeing things. _Definitely not_.

Lily pulled out her wand and picked up the pace. The shadow zipped around the bend, just out of her reach. She broke into a run to catch up. Was it an intruder?

Finally Lily spun around a bend into a long hallway – the one before her Ancient Runes class, a shadowy, poorly-lit corridor that stretched on seemingly the length of the castle's main superstructure. The black shadow floated on down the corridor, oblivious that it was pursued. From behind Lily could make it out as almost man-like but taller, thinner, more obscure, particularly as parts of it passed in and out of coherent forms, with dark wisps of smoke trailing off of its main body and thinning out into nothingness.

"Stop!" Lily shouted, her wand out.

The thing turned. Lily caught a glimpse of two beady yellow lights in the closest appendage she could call a head, lighting up as it spotted her. The smoke creature spun away again, raising a hand out in front of it. As if on command, a shimmering, mint green ring of magical energy exploded outward out of thin air, silently expanding to the height and width of a very tall man. A flat gray void within the ring sucked in strands of the green energy, pulling them in towards a black singularity at the very center.

Something in it called to Lily, even though she had no idea what she was seeing. It felt…seductive.

She ran forward as the shadow hurled itself into the void. The gray sucked it in, twisting the smoke creature into a whirl of black fog as it spun towards the center. Lily reached out to grab it, touch it, do _something_ , but as she did, the energy ring collapsed into thin air, disappearing and leaving her grasping at nothing but emptiness. A thin ash fell to the floor, fine and white like silica sand. Lily reached down and picked up a pinch – it felt hot and smelled of burnt charcoal.

 _Footsteps_. A gust of wind – _the windows are closed_ – blew past her as she spun around. Professor Edgecombe and Professor Yaro stood at the end of the corridor, the latter looking confused, the former suspicious.

"Professors…hi," said Lily, her heart speeding up and pounding her chest. Heat flashed across her face. _Dammit_. "I was just…"

"You were just strolling after hours?" accused Professor Edgecombe. She didn't look so mysterious now: Her scars looked more pronounced, almost like someone had scrawled something on her face many years ago. "You were supposed to be in your common room twenty minutes ago."

"I was…I was sending a letter."

"The Owlery is on the other side of the castle."

Lily gulped. Professor Yaro cut in: "If I may, Marietta – Lily, is there something you are looking for? A student, a teacher? A possession?"

She turned around, but the sand had disappeared, leaving only a clean floor behind her, the lone shred of evidence that the shadow had escaped gone and vanished. Lily tried to think up an excuse, but her mind failed her. Questions and confusion flooded her thoughts, none of them in any way making sense – certainly not for a good excuse.

"Just for fun, then," Professor Edgecombe decided. "Ten points from Ravenclaw for being out past hours, Ms. Potter. Ten more for lying, and detention on Monday."

"Wait a minute, I'll take the detention," said Yaro. Lily felt a wash of relief: Dealing with her easygoing Transfiguration professor was a blessing compared to stewing in that dusky Ancient Runes classroom with a professor who didn't seem to like students much at all. "Peeves bombed my office again, and I would very much like help cleaning up the mess. Seven on Tuesday, Lily. I know enough to know not to interfere with the Quidditch practice schedules."

 _Better than it could have been_. It was generous on Professor Yaro's behalf, really, but all Lily could think about was the shadow that had just evaded her reach. What was it? Why had it run from her? Worse, had she even seen anything real at all, or were her nightmares stretching beyond the limits of sleep?


	34. Shades of the Same Gray

_**Thanks for the awesome reviews, Psych0Geek and mywildcharmsforyou!**_ _**If you like Hermione now, you're going to like the climax of this story, haha. That was not Dolohov just yet; his reveal will be a bit more…dramatic, and you'll definitely know when you see him in the flesh. More talk about Kingsley's successor at Minister in this chapter via his pompous proxy as Lily continues Hermione's assignment, Vos at last details the stakes and his former colleagues, and we get to know our gambling, drinking, Estonian Transfiguration professor a little better.**_

* * *

"Lily, are you sure you're not getting high or something at Quidditch practices? Wayne, can you vouch?"

Natalie's snark wasn't helping Lily process the shadow she'd seen on the fourth floor. The candles burnt low in the Ravenclaw common room as she, Nat, Wayne, and Logan sat around in a corner beneath a towering bookcase full of tomes for every occasion. _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_ lay open on Lily's lap, creatures large and small prowling around the page. On the parchment a chimera pounced on a reddish glob of meet, a Welsh Green burnt a house to cinders, and a Quintaped roared and struck at a terrified wizard with two of its five concrete-like digging claws, but none of them were what Lily wanted. These were _beasts_ , not mysteries that disappeared into gray voids that snapped shut as soon as Lily tried to follow.

She sighed and tossed the book onto an end table. "This doesn't have anything at all," she moaned, lolling her head back and gazing at the twinkling constellations on the common room's midnight roof. Outside thunder rumbled in the distance and cold drizzle spat at the windows, but within Ravenclaw Tower it was a clear night, with every star visible like every night in here.

"And nobody else saw it?" Wayne asked. He looked amused by Lily's story as he went over his two foot-long Herbology essay. "Nat, are you real about Fluxweed being mustard? I mean, it's green and it has no seeds on it. Doesn't look anything like mustard."

"It's in the mustard _family_ , you klutz," she corrected him. "Lily, you probably saw the Bloody Baron trying to creep out Peeves or something."

Lily felt frustrated. "I know what a ghost is," she said, trying to control rising disgruntlement with her friends. Her story was ridiculous, sure, but that didn't make it any less true. "And if I _am_ seeing things instead, it still means something bad's happening with me, and that's not any better, so then – "

"Whoa. Slow down before you hyperventilate," said Wayne. He frowned and tossed aside his essay. "Ok, so this…whatever…was flying away from you, right? And you said it spazzed when it saw you? It doesn't sound like it's trying to hurt anyone at the least. It _really_ sounds like if it…well, let's say it exists. It sounds like it doesn't want to be seen."

"Well, that means it's up to something, or I'm just going nuts."

Wayne looked exasperated. "Or I can finish the sentence. Look at it this way: When someone's trying to get away with something banned, they don't go trying to do it when everyone's on the lookout for that thing. If you're trying to drag us into some sort of adventure – "

"Oh, is that what we're doing?" Natalie perked up. "I changed my mind. Let's go find it. I went to try out that Stunning Spell and I can never get McLaggen alone."

"Great justification, Nat," he snorted. "It's probably freaked out and waiting for things to calm down. If I were sneaking around, I'd wait until the coast was clear. Unless I had a death wish, in which case I'd rush right into the Headmaster's office. Point is, why not wait and see until you have some real evidence and a better idea of what's up? And maybe, you know, somebody else who can verify it?"

Lily sputtered out an incoherent defense, but she came up with nothing. She _had_ just stumbled into the thing by chance, after all – and after hours, when anything sneaking about had to expect less run-ins. Maybe Wayne's logic was right.

Logan, who'd been his usual quiet self the whole time, agreed: "No point when you don't know much, Lily. But you do know a lot about Herbology, so you can help me with this essay."

She grimaced as Wayne and Natalie tromped up to the dormitories and left them alone in their corner. "You spelled your last name wrong, for one thing, unless you decided to do away with the extra 'e' at the end."

"Dammit," said Logan, scribbling and handing it back. Pausing, he looked around, lowered his voice, and said, "Look, now that they're gone, _what_ exactly did you see?"

"I told you."

"Lily, come on. I talk with Professor Vos just as much as you, I bet. We both saw strange shite our first year. We're in this together and we can be honest with each other. Was this something normal for Hogwarts standards, or weird?"

She swallowed hard and set his essay down on the table. "I don't know, Logan. I mean, I do, I just don't know what it was. When it disappeared, it opened this…this portal kind of thing that sort of looked like the one that Sion came out of in the Owlery our first year. I swear that was real. The ash it left behind, it was real. I'm not just making things up."

To her surprise, he merely nodded and accepted it. "You have to tell someone about it, okay? Last time…well, this time somebody knows, so at the very least you're not dealing with something you don't understand alone."

He left unsaid _last time you didn't tell anyone and look how well that worked out! Some weirdo named Creevey is teaching Care of Magical Creatures now_ _and Hagrid just hangs out in his hut and tends to the vegetable garden_. She couldn't say no. She couldn't have the guilt of something like _that_ happening again, especially if the consequences weren't so benign this time. Her first year, everyone had made it out alright, even Natalie and the others who'd gotten sick after a summer stay at St. Mungo's. Sion was too dangerous of a character to take that kind of outcome for granted, however, especially with all the strange disappearances the _Prophet_ reported around Durmstrang.

That Saturday afternoon after Lily had returned from Quidditch practice, she met Logan at the base of Astronomy Tower and tromped up the stairs to see Professor Vos.

The sun peaked out from behind openings in the roiling gray sea of clouds above that threatened a downpour at any moment. A brisk wind carried the first chill of the coming cold of autumn and winter. Professor Vos looked as if he'd just woken up when Lily and Logan knocked on his door, nursing a full quart of coffee and appraising them with blurry eyes.

"I teach Astronomy, you nuts," he chided as they sat down in his office. "I have to be up all night. So yeah, it's four o'clock and this is breakfast time for me."

"James does that during the summer," Lily bemoaned.

"Your brother teaches Astronomy during the summer?" asked Logan.

"What? No, the getting up in the afternoon and staying up half the night part."

Vos took a long swig of coffee and clunked down his mug so hard a white and gray bird of prey perched on an owl stand behind him squawked and flapped its wings in protest. "You two so bored on a Saturday that you came up to talk to me?" he said. "Damn. How's Quidditch going, Lily? Heard you made the team. Not surprised."

She smiled. Even though the man on the train had told her to question her teacher, Vos still had a way of making her feel stronger and more confident than she often felt. "It's okay. Wayne's a lot better than me. Vale and Jamie are pushing hard."

"Good leaders push. They're doing a good job, then. You got plenty of time before your first match, anyway; Gryffindor and Slytherin have to kick off things as it is. What's new with you, Logan?"

Logan was too busy watching the bird behind Vos to answer. "What's with the…the eagle, or whatever that is?"

Vos turned around. "This? It's an osprey. Not mine. Just was sending me mail."

"Why not just use an owl?"

He rolled his eyes and pulled out a grease-stained, yellow letter from his desk. "The harpy keeps writing me to quit my job and join her on her little crusade against the Ministry of Magic. Even though she sounded pretty final when you met her, Lily, she's not giving up easily. She never does."

"You talking about that Fell woman? Alanis?" Logan cut in.

Lily was surprised he even knew who Alanis Fell was. _Then again, if he and Vos have been talking…that figures_.

"Yeah," Vos said, nodding. "Relentless witch."

"So…why not an owl, again?"

Vos stewed on his words. "We had an owl intercepted in Germany once when we were there. Owls are pretty tough, but they're not the biggest nor the fastest birds around, nor do they have all that great endurance. After that we picked birds we felt were better for the job. This is what Alanis picked. Incidentally, no one actually wanted our mail; some eagle got hungry and decided a tired owl was a good snack, and bam, letter goes missing."

"What's yours?"

"Cape vulture," said Vos. He snorted at Lily's look of disapproval. "What? It's an ugly bird, but it's a big bird, and I'm a big guy. Less people screw with you when you're big. You two really here to talk birds? 'Cuz I don't know tits about them besides that they carry mail."

"Lily actually has an interesting story," Logan said, staring at her.

She gulped and looked away at the enchanted window in Vos's office. His African savanna scene looked so peaceful that she wanted to jump right into it and get away from these dangers lurking about. The tall, golden grass, the red dirt, the black, rocky mountains, the impala that looked up from eating to stare at her, plants dangling from its mouth – it all looked picturesque. Boring, even – Lily doubted she'd last two weeks staring at nothing but nature before she went nuts in search of some deeper mystery or insight. But when learning the strange things few other people knew risked letting such things she didn't understand into the castle and threatening those other people…

 _Careful what you wish for. You wanted something exciting to happen_ _after last year's snooze-fest_.

Slowly, bit by bit, Lily recounted her pursuit of the shadow to Vos. He listened with only a muted "mm" or "what next?" from time to time, letting Lily go at her own pace. When she finished at last, he nodded, pressed his hands together, and said, "Professor Edgecombe gave you detention for that?"

"Yeah," said Lily. _That's what he took away from it?_ "She didn't even want to listen to me."

"Rather harsh. I think you guys were smart to take Ancient Runes – it's a good subject, really, a great one for all sorts of careers if you go to NEWT level – but I don't talk to Marietta much. Anyway…look, you two, there's some strange stuff out there about magic that I don't know, that most people don't. Is something like a…a shadow as you call it, drifting around Hogwarts strange? Yeah. Hogwarts is also kind of a strange place. I would advise a wait-and-see attitude. If you see that again, though, tell me as soon as possible. That kind of magical portal isn't something I'm unfamiliar with, but if something is up, I very much want to know the reason behind it. Only idiots fish with grenades. Smart fisherman wait for the fish to take the bait."

His eyes drifted across his desk as he talked, and suspicion pricked Lily's mind. _Opening a portal inside of Hogwarts is just 'strange?'_

"Fish with what?" asked Logan.

Vos looked at him as if he'd asked what bread was. "A grenade. It's a handheld explosive you throw…dammit, I'm not explaining what a grenade is. Go get a dictionary."

"Wait," Lily said, steering the conversation back on course, "But what if Sion and – and that mentor guy of yours – do have a way inside and this is something of theirs? I just don't think it's a good idea to do _nothing_. That lets them do whatever they want."

"No, it doesn't," Vos said. "Lily, sometimes the best strategy is to hold tight. Let's say you're playing Quidditch, and you're up by a good lead, but the other team's started to stifle your offense. You start playing sloppy, giving up the Quaffle, and they're taking it away and scoring and coming back. If you keep pressing you're getting nowhere. Better in that case to dig in and hold the line for a while. Could Sion and my mentor be trying to get in Hogwarts again? Sure, maybe. I don't know. But maybe not. They are the kind of men that you don't want to overplay your hand around."

"Can you just explain who this mentor guy is?" Logan said.

Vos sighed and gulped down the dregs of his coffee. "Lord, you too? Thought it was just Lily bugging me about him. Fine. Fine, here we go." Lily sat up in a flash: _No better time to judge Vos's_ trustworthiness. He leaned back in his chair, put his hands behind his head, and said, "He has a name. I don't know if it's his given name or he just picked it up, but it's Genseric. Stupid name, ya. I don't know his history. I don't know who he was as a kid or as a young adult. I met him when he was old, and he's still old. All I know is that he offered a lot – _a lot_ – of information and contacts, and for someone who had lived a life constantly on the move – another story for another time, but it involved a couple wars after I left South Africa at eighteen – he was tempting. He knows enough magic that he could probably rival Lord Voldemort on pure knowledge alone, although they differ in their areas of expertise. Voldemort was a pretty conventional guy. Killing Curses, Ministry takeover, whatever. Genseric…in lesser terms, he's a necromancer."

The hairs on the back of Lily's neck stood at attention. "You can't bring the dead back to life," she protested. "That's not possible."

"Right, he doesn't. That's why I said in lesser terms," explained Vos. "Voldemort had Inferi at his command. Genseric has created things that make Inferi look like playthings. I've seen one. More than one. And not just from dead bodies, but also from living, breathing people. My little friend down in the lower tunnels who Sion wanted? Genseric has his parent, and that creature is so old and has so much stored-up knowledge and so many memories from wizards and witches both modern and ancient, arcane even, that there's just so many doors open. When Alanis and I found out that he had pushed his experiments far beyond the reasonable bounds of magical experimentation, that's when we stood up to him and fought. Think of him like a mad scientist from folklore who doesn't know when to stop. That's the best way I can put him."

Logan shot a look at Lily before saying, "What's he want to do with all this, though? Even crazy people have aims."

"Not him," Vos said, shaking his head. "He doesn't want for earthly power. He doesn't fear death like Voldemort. He doesn't want magical supremacy. He doesn't want to create a better world or save people. He just does things. Voldemort and his cronies enjoyed killing non-magical people and wanted to see wizarding society on top, but my mentor…I don't think he can even differentiate between Muggles and termites. Voldemort and Grindelwald had malice, but Genseric isn't even a malignant man. I don't think he distinguishes between doing right and doing wrong. It's all just shades of the same gray to him."

He tossed Alanis's letter into a corner of the room and went on: "That's why I think Alanis is an idiot and why I won't join her stupid rabble-rousing cause of firing up the downtrodden against the Ministry. She thinks she can rally a united magical power to stand up to a person who really isn't much of a person at all. Conventional force might slow my mentor down, but it won't stop whatever he's doing. Not forever."

"Not gonna lie," he said, refilling his coffee with his wand, "part of why I'm keeping my little bud down in the castle bowels is because I want to know how to hold my own. I don't have access to a tenth of the knowledge my mentor does, but if there's some wisdom from ancient wizards and witches I can glean, shite."

Something smelled fishy about that all to Lily. She didn't question Vos's description of Genseric – and she was happy to hear him use the name the man on the train had used – but did he expect her to believe that he and Alanis had just walked away over the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back? Alanis had seemed like an ambitious woman – and acted like one, if the _Prophet_ and Hermione were to be believed – and Vos wasn't a slouch. Lily suspected there was a much more personal grudge at the heart of these four people revolving around each other.

If so, Sion would come back to Britain – and to Hogwarts – eventually. _Why not now?_

* * *

On Tuesday evening, Lily tromped down from Ravenclaw Tower for detention with Professor Yaro. Her shoulder ached and bruised with a dark purple splotch, a memento from Maisie Davies's well-hit Bludger in Quidditch practice the day before. Lily thought they were doing well as a team so far – Royce Marlowe was proving to be an above-average Keeper, a big help to Lily and the Chaser gang on defense – but Chloe Meredith at Seeker was struggling even to locate the Snitch, let alone catch it, drawing practice into an hours-long affair. More and more it was looking like Lily, Wayne, and Vale Leng would have to pick up the slack on offense if Ravenclaw were to manage a win against Hufflepuff in their season opener.

Stragglers wandered up late from supper past Lily as she walked down the halls. The days were growing shorter: Already the sun was setting on the horizon, the hills glowing tangerine and gold. A flock of geese flew in the darkening sky, little more than black imprints against the sunset, and from the corridor windows Lily could see the faintest flickers of light from Hogsmeade far in the distance.

She'd expected to be alone with Professor Yaro for detention, but she ran into company on the way to the Transfiguration classroom – a different sort of company.

"Ah, Lily!" Declan Stennis bellowed, the head of the Magical Education Department loitering beside a suit of armor that struggled to get the creaks out of its steel plate. "Taking a nighttime stroll, perhaps? I admit it is lovely seeing the sun set from the higher latitude and altitude. Something about the mountain air brings out the color, no?"

As much as Lily wanted to say something sarcastic, she held back. _Remember what you're supposed to be doing_. "Yeah. It's gorgeous. It's, um…it's nice that you appreciate the sight." _Does that sound convincing, Lily? Really?_

Apparently so. "I am a painter in my free time," Stennis said, taking Lily's arm and steering her down the corridor towards a wider window. "I could find a lot of inspiration by spending more time up here. Unfortunately, I am called to London daily for my work. Even taking an accounting of Hogwarts is a slow process. But it is all good for you, yes?"

"So you're an artist?" Lily asked. "That's inspired."

"A casual one. I cannot call myself a professional – if I had the time, perhaps, but not for another life."

"I…see. Actually, I'm on my way to a – a meeting with Professor Yaro – "

Stennis looked interested. "The Transfiguration instructor?" he asked, fingering the gaudy golden sun pendant around his neck. "Interesting man, Durmstrang-taught. Hard to understand his accent sometimes, like that Vos who teaches Astronomy. If, perhaps, I could ask you a simple favor then, Lily?"

"What is it?" Lily asked. _Here we go_.

"This man, Yaro…and that man Vos," said Stennis, scrunching his face with a look of distaste. "The Minister is not so high on either of them. They're both foreigners, as you know. We cannot keep such a good record of wizards with lesser known backgrounds coming to teach, and for pricey pay, especially when there are many wizards and witches in Britain who would be honored to teach at Hogwarts. Why do they wish to teach here, I wonder? This Yaro in particular, he comes from Durmstrang? And during a time of such interesting disappearances happening around that school, it makes a man nervous, especially a man like the Minister."

 _Or like a xenophobe_. Lily wanted to snap at Stennis, tell him Vos was her favorite teacher and that she cherished Yaro's friendly, easygoing demeanor – but what good would blowing her whole cover do? _Horrible way to spy on a guy, really_. _Hold your tongue, Lily_. Stennis didn't strike her as the brightest bulb in the shed, and if she could control herself, she might learn a lot more incriminating information that Hermione could find useful.

She plastered on a bright smile and nodded. "Well, yeah, that's certainly understandable," she said. "In fact, I've always been pretty bad at Transfiguration since I started here. I've never really known why."

"Well, of course! Your father is one of the strongest wizards in the world, to have his daughter struggle, a strange thing indeed," Stennis said. "If you could let your father – or me, even, although I don't demand so – know if anything strange occurs with either of these men, it would be a great service. The Minister would certainly be appreciate – I am here to see where we can cut a little extra expense, after all! You have already done quite a lot as a student here, what with being involved in that dark wizard's insertion into the castle a year and a half ago. You will have a fine career."

 _Sir, strange stuff has indeed occurred, but I'm not telling you about it._

Best play along, no matter how much Lily had a bad taste in her mouth over this bureaucratic bootlicker with that ostentatious pendant around his neck. Lily could barely keep eye contact with Stennis, what with that thing bobbing around like a third hand sprouting from his chest. _You're that concerned over foreigners teaching at Hogwarts, but you got that jewelry from one of the German Ministry's top officials? Hypocrite_.

She smiled and bid Stennis an overly cheerful farewell before heading into detention. Professor Yaro wasn't in the classroom. It wasn't until Lily knocked on the door to his office that he replied with a muffled, "Yes? It's open."

His office was a disaster zone. Brick red paint covered everything – his desk, his trunks, books, the walls, a globe almost as tall as Lily was in the corner that now looked more like Mars than the Earth, everything. Yaro held his hands akimbo in the center of his office, sweat running down his temples, his sleeves rolled up and his wand out. A half-dozen crusty sponges dusted in red paint littered the floor. Peeves apparently hadn't settled for one bombing run on Yaro's office.

"I have tried blasting Peeves's paint off, clearing it with spells, everything, but it only comes off by hand," he said, panting. "He could not have bombed someone else's office? Anyone else's? I would appreciate your help in this, Lily – even if we only get a single wall cleaned tonight. That would be an improvement."

Fair enough. Lily had no problem getting her hands dirty, and it was a lot better than writing lines or something mind-numbing like that. Cleaning was almost fun, throwing muscle into something magic couldn't solve as they worked to wash away Peeves's explosion.

"This poltergeist, an absolute nightmare," Yaro said through gritted teeth as he scrubbed at a particularly tough spot. "We had our woes at Durmstrang, but nothing like a maniac running around without a leash. Six years here and I am still surprised by things. I am not sorry for his more humorous distractions, but this personally is quite a pain. Fool me twice and I set up protections around my office."

"He's not malicious though; he's like a big kid," Lily said. _Why am I defending Peeves?_ "A big kid who probably needs a few rules."

Yaro winced and wrung out his hands. "Stop for a minute, my wrists are threatening to drop off of my forearms." He crouched over the splattered floor and massaged the undersides of his arms. "This is a mammoth undertaking. Fortunately I spend most of my correcting in the staff room. I use this office little. I am surprised you do not complain about the job – I would have expected some grousing over manual labor."

Lily shrugged. "It's actually kind of fun. I like working on things with my hands. That's probably why I'm not very good in class."

"Nah, you are fine. Some are better, but fine enough," Yaro said, waving her away. "It is good to hear, though – where I am from, putting in the effort into things is expected. A lot of young people I see are unwilling to do that in these days. It is refreshing to see you act otherwise. At Durmstrang, we were expected to do much of the castle's upkeep. Boring most of the time, but our instructors told us it built character. We did not have the best of headmasters, though, not like your Albus Dumbledore, or Headmaster Maribor. I was under a spineless little man, Igor Karkaroff, for some time. He was unpleasant."

"What'd he do?"

"He was lazy. And a former Death Eater from the first Wizarding War against Voldemort. A dastardly fellow. I did not shed a tear when Death Eaters hunted him down right before Voldemort's second ascent. Although I do not think he would be pleased to see what has happened around Durmstrang this year," Yaro said, with a hint of melancholy. "Strange disappearances. Unsettling events."

Lily went quiet, staring down at her feet. She barely knew how to approach this topic anymore, not when she felt torn between sympathizing with the man and knowing what she did from Vos. She couldn't reveal what she knew, obviously, but it felt dishonest to play dumb so often.

"Has anyone you know, gone…disappeared?" Lily asked, her voice very quiet.

Yaro shook his head. "Thankfully no. But two professors, two of the best recently, have fallen off the map. They had illustrious careers with various Ministries of Magic and accomplished a great many feats. What anyone would want from them, given that they were essentially in retirement teaching…it baffles me. We are told this is an age of peace since Voldemort's downfall twenty-three years ago, but sometimes it feels like walking on pins and needles as we wait for the next shoe to drop."

Lily said nothing. Maybe someone didn't need a reason to abduct them. _Or do much else._


	35. Fire in Her Belly

_**Big thanks to mywildcharmsforyou and Jjidizzle122 for the great reviews! Very kind of you to say, dizzle – happy you're enjoying and chiming in! Charms – I feel you on getting to the more exciting parts; often times I want to rush right ahead to the more exciting bits, but without the buildup, they're not half as exciting, haha (well, they'd be exciting, but everyone would be like "whaaaaaat is this wizardry?"). Alas, that's pacing for ya. As for Yaro: Safe to say a number of his students have a crush on him – and possibly also another professor (so…;) )**_

 _ **In this chapter, Lily starts getting a better handle on how to defend herself and the**_ **Daily Prophet** _ **brings bad news close to home…**_

* * *

October rolled along without Lily spotting the mysterious shadow in the castle corridors again. As Halloween approached, however, a new shockwave sent tremors through the school.

"Something's up."

The Great Hall buzzed with chatter as Lily and Logan headed down for breakfast. Students clustered in groups around issues of the _Daily Prophet_ , glancing at each other with nervous, wide eyes and chiming in hushed voices. When the two reached the Ravenclaw table, Wayne tossed a copy of the paper at them.

"Good thing nothing bad ever happens in the world," he said, his sarcasm laced with chagrin.

Lily snatched it from him before anyone could say another word. A fire blazed on the front page, consuming an old, ruined house with the headline _Mystery Attack Terrorizes Town!_ glowing in bright, inky black letters above.

 _Mysterious assailants struck the sleepy village of Godric's Hollow late yesterday. Reports from numerous wizards and witches living in the village indicate a number of Inferi arriving on central Church Lane shortly after sunset, accompanied by several dark wizards and led, according to Aurors on the scene, by none other than on-the-run Death Eater Antonin Dolohov. The attack took the lives of two Muggles caught in the crossfire after the arrival of Aurors from the Ministry of Magic and left several injured, including Auror Dean Thomas._

 _Witness –_

"The hell?" Logan snapped, his voice catching. He ripped the paper away from Lily and scanned the headline closely, his eyebrows furrowed so low that they threatened to dip into his eyes, his mouth ajar. After flipping several pages and browsing the whole story for a solid minute, he let out a deep breath and handed it back. "Alright, fine. Have a look."

"You okay?" Lily said quietly.

He screwed up his face. "I live there, Lily. I just needed to read the no disappearances part, so…" He let his words dangle and gave her a look that said it all.

 _Witness testimony described the scene as a horrifying light show engaged over half an hour. Esteemed resident and Wizengamot member Susan Howe called the fighting of Aurors led by force chief Harry Potter "heroic," noting that the assailants outnumbered the Aurors heavily but fell back after concentrated attacks. The ruined Potter cottage, where Lord Voldemort murdered Lily and James Potter forty years ago, burned down in the fighting after several of the assailants used it as a base of cover, and the town graveyard, home to members of numerous wizarding families including the Potters and Peverells, sustained heavy damage._

 _Chief Auror Potter described the presence of Dolohov as "monstrous," identifying his appearance as a tie between this attack and the recent disappearances around the Durmstrang Institute in Norway. The Auror response ensured no reported disappearances this time if the attack was connected as Potter suspects, and Obliviators were on hand within minutes of the end of the fighting to attend to the village's Muggle population._

 _No evidence exists on the target or motive of Dolohov, who Potter notes behaved "erratically," and his assailants. Official reports describe the attacking Inferi as "unique," showing little fear of the traditional remedy for such dark creatures, fire. Auror Thomas remains at St. Mungo's in stable condition after…_

Lily felt a fist gripping her heart. She knew all about what had happened in Godric's Hollow forty years ago, why her father had become famous from birth, all of the legendary story – and one lightning raid had burned down her grandparents' home, destroying the house that Voldemort couldn't level. And desecrating the graveyard…Lily shuddered and clenched her teeth. She felt angry, confused, proud of her father, and a million other things that struck her all at once.

At the heart of it, she wanted to know what Dolohov – _what the people behind Dolohov_ – wanted. Of course it was them.

 _We fought him in Germany, back in 2003. My mentor took him…as a prisoner. And as a test subject. Genseric has created things that make Inferi look like playthings_. Lily questioned the _Prophet_ 's reporting: Had "Dolohov" been leading Inferi at all, or something much more sinister, something that wouldn't shy away from simple fire?

"Why?" she whispered, still staring at the house burning on the front page. Was that her grandparents' home, her father's birthplace? This wasn't mystery disappearances off in Scandinavia. This was a personal attack against _her_ and her family right here in Britain. Rage swelled in Lily's heart. Here she was stuck in Hogwarts as Sion's cronies traipsed around the countryside, attacking the memories of _her_ heroic grandparents – and no doubt this would only be a minor setback, if one at all. It was heartbreaking and infuriating all at once, and she felt the urge both to cry and punch something.

Logan stormed away from the table. "Forget breakfast. I have to go write to my family."

"Mate, at least eat breakfast," Wayne said. "You read that thing, everyone's fine. You don't have to worry about 'em when Aurors are on scene. Lily's dad, even."

"I don't care," Logan growled.

"I'm gonna go, too," Lily said, ignoring Wayne's protests and hurrying after Logan.

She stopped him in the Entrance Hall as the loud conversations trailed behind them. "You sure you're alright?"

"No, I'm not," Logan grunted, not bothering to turn around as he stalked up the stairs. "Why are we sitting here learning how to turn teacups into mice and other shite when this is going on? What does that do for us?"

 _Whoa_. Lily swallowed and tried to calm herself, as someone in the conversation had to be level-headed. Logan clearly wasn't feeling up to it. She wanted to agree with him, but logic said otherwise: "It's school. We do Defense Against the Dark Arts for that. I know it's stupid sometimes but we're…we're not Aurors, Logan. We barely got out alive when we get caught up in all this."

"You of all people defending this," he scoffed. "Fine, then why don't we say anything when Vos tells us all this? Why doesn't _he_ say anything about what he knows, or that woman, Alanis?"

"Maybe there's things we don't know. Look, I want to do things too, really," Lily said. She wanted to tell him, _yes, let's go! I'm angry and mad enough to do something stupid_ – except a little voice in the back of her head told her that while she might be mad enough for that, she _couldn_ 't afford to be that stupid. _Not until you have real facts to back up what you're going to do_. "Who would even believe us? Making wild accusations when – " she looked around before continuing, " – when Sion and that Genseric guy never show? People would blow us off as stupid kids. We don't have any evidence to show off. I don't know why Vos and Alanis Fell don't say anything. Maybe they have their reasons, and maybe those are what we should be figuring out first."

Logan slumped his shoulders. "This is just stupid."

"I know. Go write your mum. Was that her giving the testimony in the paper?" said Lily, trying to take his mind away from running away from school and trying to fight single-handedly.

He nodded. "Her and my dad and my sister all there when I'm here. Good thing your dad showed up, I guess."

"How old's your sister?" asked Lily, still trying to divert the conversation.

"Lauren's ten. She'll start here next year," he said, looking defeated, his voice flat and airy.

Lily forced a smile. She didn't want her friend to feel depressed about all this, just as much as she didn't want him running off and getting killed. "Well, she's probably happy her big brother wants to look out for her. James and I are like that, even if he's embarrassing about it. Al too, but he's not so big and brash about it."

Logan nodded curtly. "You writing to your dad?"

"To my aunt Hermione, actually. Because she wants me to report on the Ministry guy who I've had a couple talks with, I thought…I mean, I've heard from my mum and dad how the Ministry was when Voldemort was coming back, and nobody did anything about it then. Maybe that's a way I can help out now before Sion and all this gets too big."

Logan thought about it for a few moments before shrugging. "I guess. You're, um…you're good at this whole thing, you know? I mean you're garbage in Charms and Transfiguration and we're all terrible in Ancient Runes, but keeping your cool, that's…you're better than me, at least."

"Thanks," Lily said with a smile that felt real this time. "And I'm not _atrocious_ at Charms. I'm getting a little better."

"Your Freezing Spell lit the desk on fire, so I dunno about that. Maybe you shouldn't sit by Nat, because she shows you up."

"Oh, gee, thanks."

If Lily wanted to know more in Defense Against the Dark Arts, she didn't have to wait beyond that very afternoon. Professor Corner hauled Evie up to the front of the class for yet another demonstration as he announced, "Alright, let's settle down. I think all of you read what happened in today's _Prophet_. Nasty business. It's a good time to learn how to defend against simple spells and curses, however – and the Shield Charm's for that. You all know how to do the Knockback Jinx by now – mostly – but that kind of a spell can be repelled and stopped before it ever hits you. If you can put a guard between yourself and an attacker, you're doing pretty well."

He moved a few empty desks out of the way to give himself space and went on: "Alright, here's how this spell goes. Evie, you're decent with the jinx, so when you're ready, try and knock me over. I'm going to repel it."

Evie pursed her lips, looking annoyed at her dad calling her Knockback Jinxes "decent." Lily had to admit the girl was doing better than everyone else so far on mastering the simple defensive spells, and if it weren't for Professor Corner going harder on her than on anyone else, she imagined Evie's ego would have reached critical mass by now.

" _Flipendo!_ " Evie said, flicking her wand at her father.

Professor Corner swung his at the same time. " _Protego!_ "

Evie's jinx bounced off the Shield Charm and ricocheted into the back wall, bouncing again before smacking into the chandelier on the ceiling and knocking out several bulbs. "Just like that, easy business," Professor Corner said. "You all are going to pair up, one trying to jinx the other, who tries to defend. Make sure you're actually jinxing correctly – Evie, that was an over-exaggerated move with your wand. Not so hard."

Another sour look. Natalie smirked next to Lily, clearly also enjoying watching Professor Corner take his daughter down a peg.

"Let's do this. I'm shooting you first," Natalie said, urging Lily up. "I'll go easy if you can deflect the first one into Wayne."

"You're so sweet like that," snorted Wayne, who lined up next to her opposite Logan, who took his place next to Lily.

Natalie bounced on the balls of her feet as she waited to have a go. Lily felt nervous: Her best friend had been a lot better at the Knockback Jinx than she'd been, and adding a new spell to the repertoire…it didn't look like good odds. Worse, Evie took up position on Lily's other side, standing across from Kaya and with a chip on her shoulder after her father had dressed her down in front of the class.

"Ready? Go!" Professor Corner announced.

" _Flipendo!"_ Natalie shouted, almost throwing her wand at Lily with built-up anticipation.

Lily barely had time to say her incantation before the jinx threw her off her feet. She crashed to the floor, gritting her teeth, her rear smarting in pain. Logan had fallen as well, but Evie looked down at her with a contemptuous expression, her shield at least stopping Kaya's jinx.

Professor Corner said, "Amir over there nailed it – great shield. Same thing, put a little more oomph into it than a flick of the wrist, those of you struggling. Couple more rounds and we'll switch up."

His advice didn't help. Lily went down twice more to Natalie's jinx before Evie harrumphed and interjected, "Lily, you're doing it all wrong. Didn't you listen? It's more than just a flick of the wrist. More oomph. Watch me do it the next time."

 _Rather rude_. Lily complied, not because she wanted to listen to Evie, but because the girl _was_ doing a nice job repelling Kaya's every jinx. Sure enough, Evie swatted her forearm, shouted, " _Protego!_ " and sent Kaya's jinx soaring out the window.

"See? It's like that. Just copy that," said Evie, raising her chin for another go.

Feeling disgruntled and deflated, Lily straightened up to try again. She raised her wand to defend Natalie's jinx once more, and as she shouted her incantation, she felt a rush of jubilation as she stayed on her feet. _She'd done it! Shield Charm down!_ Then she noticed Evie lying on the floor next to her, rubbing her back and glaring at Natalie.

"Nat, she's your partner, not me!" Evie protested. "You're supposed to jinx her!"

Putting on Evie's look of superiority, Natalie stuck her hands on her hips, jutted out her chin, and lectured, "In the _real_ world, your opponent won't give you a fair fight. That was a _poor effort_ blocking me. That's why you shouldn't be _over-exaggerating_."

"Well, I didn't think _both of you_ were going to shoot at me!"

"I just _said…_ "

Evie scowled at her and said nothing more. Lily giggled: Maybe she _hadn't_ actually blocked anything, but watching Natalie mimic Evie's air of superiority was worth it, particularly as Professor Corner ignored the prank entirely. It was enough motivation that the next time Natalie fired a jinx at her, Lily whipped her wand fast enough and intercepted the spell in mid-air. A splotch of blue magic splashed in front of her as the shield absorbed the jinx, and a wave of relief washed over Lily.

"Yay!" Natalie cried and clapped her hands. "You got it! Sort of. A bit. But it's not a total failure!"

Evie snorted and rolled her eyes. Lily didn't care. _I'm getting it little by little_.


	36. Quidditch and Quandries

_**Thanks for another great review, mywildcharms – love all your great input and observations! You may be waiting a while for Evie to lose her air, haha. As for Scorpius, besides an extremely brief cameo here, he'll be showing up several chapters later – Lily's taking solo spotlight for what's just ahead at the end of this chapter as we dive into more intrigue-laden content and classes takes a backseat. Quidditch, however…funny enough, good timing with that comment, right as this chapter unfolds…**_

 _ **As a side note, I felt like I was writing a FIFA fanfic for half this chapter, not a Harry Potter one. A weakness of mine is going onnnnnnn about the details in a match of Quidditch…kind of hard not to when you're not writing about the Seekers.**_

* * *

Halloween came and went and still Lily's nightmares continued. They changed in little subtle ways, sometimes with no faces amidst the crowd of shades hurrying in and out of the Ravenclaw dormitory, sometimes with more shadows watching her, sometimes ending with her rooted to the ground, and sometimes allowing her to move freely about. Some nights they never came at all, and she slept peacefully until morning. Some nights they stuck around so long and so forcefully that by the time she awoke she felt as if she'd never slept at all.

Typically, that happened at the worst possible times.

"You're tired _now?_ " Wayne bemoaned to her at the Ravenclaw table in the Great Hall on one particularly cold Saturday morning in mid-November. "Like, did you forget that this one Quidditch team called Hufflepuff is playing this other team called Ravenclaw in an hour and a half?"

Lily clawed sleep out of her eyes, feeling beyond drowsy. "I know. I just couldn't get to sleep."

"Can you at least be a human missile on the pitch today if you can't catch the Quaffle? That way Vale and I don't have to do all the Chaser work."

"I can play, Wayne, lay off," she grumbled, stirring eggs around her plate until they devolved into a yellow bog. "Just leave me alone until we have to go down."

Wayne sighed and glanced over down the table, where Vale Leng and Jamie Beaufort were deep in conversation about last-minute tactics for the match. The Ravenclaws had stepped up training to four or five times a week over the past two weeks after Gryffindor had exacted bloody vengeance on Slytherin for two straight losses, crushing their rivals to the tune of four hundred-ten to one hundred. Roxanne had even topped Slytherin's prodigy Seeker Marcellus Southwick for the first time – and with Gryffindor's dominance out for everyone to see, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff knew the stakes. Whoever wanted to challenge for the Cup this year couldn't afford to slip up – or even scrape out meager wins.

Lily had only further realized the gulf between Gryffindor and everyone else when Rose came up to her in the hallway in the past week, urging her on in her first match but doing so in a tone that suggested, _and maybe your house will even do well enough to score a single goal against us when we go head-to-head in the spring!_

 _That match will not be fun_.

She couldn't worry about Gryffindor now, though. Not after Chloe Meredith's continued struggles at Seeker in practice that only put more weight on the shoulders of the Ravenclaw Chasers to score, and definitely not after the past week in Charms had felt like a miniature cold war as the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws glared daggers across the room at each other.

"Oh, lord, they all look so superior," Natalie growled at the table as she eyed the Hufflepuffs. "What is it with Hufflepuffs that they act like they're so holy because their house is about friendship and flowers and crap, and that this means the minute you say anything bad about them, you're automatically the devil?"

"Uh, 'friendship and flowers?'" Logan snickered. "I think you invented a fifth house, Nat."

She snorted. "No, seriously. I mean, it sounds better when you attribute those things to them. It makes them obnoxiously wholesome and easy to hate."

"Well, that's pretty loony, but at least you have that whole rah-rah spirit thing down," Wayne grunted into his half-eaten breakfast. "Screw it, I'm not hungry anymore either."

"Eat, you two," growled Vale from down the table, taking a break from her strategy talk. "If you get hungry mid-match and play like crap, I'm not gonna be happy. Are you two their friends? Get them to eat."

Natalie looked offended. "I'm not force-feeding people, that's gross."

"I'm a prefect. I'll give the house five points to see that," Jamie interjected. For being the only other veteran on the Ravenclaw team, he looked anything but concerned about the match – or much at all, a far cry from Vale's eagle-look expression.

"Really?" cried Nat. She immediately began scooping huge helpings of whatever she could reach onto Wayne and Lily's plates, adding, "You two need to get lots of _fiber_ and _protein_ and whatever those little black bits in the mash are, because that does muscle growth and whatever!"

When she looked expectantly towards Jamie, he laughed and said, "I lied, I can't give points for that. If I could, I'd just give the whole house two thou because I remembered to zip up after leaving the loo. I just thought that was funny."

A few minutes after Vale and Jamie left for the pitch, Wayne pulled Lily up and said, "C'mon, we're not gonna score just staring at breakfast plates all morning."

"I still need to throw up," Lily murmured.

"Well, great, let's do that outside and not in front of hundreds of people."

Logan clapped Wayne on the back and gripped Lily's shoulder. "You guys got it. It's not gonna be close."

"Yeah, if we get crushed," Lily groused.

"Lily, it's your first match, you're so mopey. Cheer up," Natalie said, getting up and grabbing her in a hug. "Go blow some people up. You too, Wayne." She stood on her tiptoes and gave him a peck on the neck before hurrying back to her seat and looking away.

Wayne gave her a long, perplexed look, only breaking out of his stupor as they left the Great Hall and stepped out onto the grounds.

"So, you're a girl," he said, rubbing his neck.

Lily only half heard him. "Last time I checked."

"What's that mean, then? What Nat…whatever she just did?"

"I dunno. I should've eaten more breakfast. I'm gonna get hungry and play like dirt."

He rolled his eyes. "Really? You shook off what people were saying behind your back all week, and now you freak out over Vale's off-hand snark?"

"People were saying things behind my back?"

Wayne paused with his mouth ajar. "Are you tired _and_ amnesiac? That prick of a Keeper the Hufflepuffs have talked shite about both of us five feet away on Thursday, and you ignored him just fine."

 _Ugh, whatever_. Everything felt awful. Her stomach, her nerves, her head in its fuzzy exhaustion, the chilly, just-above-freezing wind that bit at her nose and ears, all of it. What on Earth had motivated her to try out for the Quidditch team? Had she subconsciously set her sights on embarrassing herself in front of the entire school? _This is such a shite idea_.

They ran into little Chloe Meredith just outside the stadium, their Seeker clutching her stomach and in tears. "I think I'm too sick to play, guys," she whined. "I can't do this. I have to vomit."

"Oh _come on_ , can you two at least puke on each other and give me warning so I can escape the crossfire?" Wayne lamented.

They were the last ones into the changing room. Lily and Chloe weren't alone with their nerves – out of all the newcomers to the team, only Wayne maintained his composure, although Lily suspected he was laying on the attitude harsher than normal to cover up his own pre-game anxiety. Their Keeper, Royce Marlowe, keeled over on a bench with his uniform splayed out beside him, his face hidden in his hands. Jamie's fellow Beater Maisie Davies, meanwhile, rocked against a wall, her eyes shut tight as she murmured under her breath.

Lily sat down against one of the changing room's oaken alcoves, clenching her hands and trying to keep herself from hyperventilating. _Breathe in. Breathe out. Slowly. Your heart's going too fast. Slow it down. It's beating too hard now._ _You're going to have a stroke._

Vale appraised them with a less-than-satisfied look. "Get dressed, you guys," she said. "Think about getting your pants on rather than remembering how to hold a ball. You're gonna have a seizure if you overthink it right now."

"We could shock the Hufflepuffs into submission with a mass suicide," Jamie suggested.

Vale was not amused.

Lily pulled her uniform out of her alcove and held it up to examine it. A bright, black-outlined, bronze number seven glowed in the middle of a white circle centered on a royal blue tunic. On the back of her riding cape, shining white letters read out _POTTER_ above her number. _So it's real. Now it's really real. This has my name on it._

"This is pretty cool, huh?" Wayne said to her, holding out his own cape with _TORRES_ emblazoned over the number four. "It's like I own this." Despite his confidence, his words had a shakiness to him, and his voice had jumped half an octave.

Lily was too nervous herself to answer. By the time Vale stood in front of them in the dusky changing room to go over things for the last time, Lily feared it didn't matter what she had or hadn't eaten for breakfast – last night's supper could come up as well.

Vale took a deep breath, licked her lips, and said, "Alright, this isn't about overthinking or trying to outsmart what we've done well in practice. Just feel your way around the pitch. You've all done good up to now; now we're just going up against these Hufflepuff schmucks. You don't have to be perfect. Just do what you know you can and what we've hammered down in practice. We all do that, we'll win. We don't have to be showy. We're not going to win the Cup today. We have two more games, this is just step one. Let's go make it happen."

"Please, for the love of God, because that Hufflepuff Keeper is a colossal twat," Jamie added.

Lily had a brief visage of Al in Diagon Alley calling a fair-haired boy in a white robe an "absolute clown," but before she could dwell on the memory, Vale and Jamie led them out onto the pitch.

The stadium was packed, split evenly between yellow- and blue-clad spectators. Several chants swirled into one raging din in Lily's ears. She shut her eyes and trooped behind Wayne to shut it all out, but one cry got through to her.

"Come on, Lily! Let's go!"

Lily gritted her teeth and turned her head. There on the front row at midfield was Rose, dressed in blue from head to toe, perching her elbows on the stadium railing like a tiger waiting to pounce. Al sat on her other side, and Lily could make out her brother saying something to her cousin – _probably telling her to calm down, knowing him_ – while Hugo sat on her other side. Bafflingly, next to Hugo – and even more shockingly to Lily, dressed in blue like her family – sat Scorpius Malfoy. _How did Hugo convince Rose and him not to kill each other?_

"Don't let me look up," she said through her clenched jaw to Wayne.

"Really? Wish I had fans," he said. "Sometimes it's kind of a bummer when your whole family's Muggles 'cept for you."

Vale walked out to midfield as Hogwarts's Quidditch referee and flying instructor, a tall, brown-haired, middle-aged wizard in slate gray robes named Terence Higgs, ushered forward Hufflepuff's captain. It was their Keeper, the same boy Al had scoffed at in Diagon Alley, Tanner Wynch, with starry good looks compromised by a smirk that reeked of self-importance. As he shook Vale's hand, Lily could just make out their exchange.

"Great day for a beatdown," said Wynch, checking out the flat gray sky above. "No wind, no rain, terribly sorry you guys blow this year."

Vale offered him a plastic smile. "Just make sure you stay on your broom. Shame if you got hurt, but I hear it's hard to ride when you have a plug in your butt."

"Are we starting off on penalty shots?" Master Higgs threatened, his whistle already in hand. "No? Then get back to your teams and get on your brooms."

Lily hiked one leg over her Mach 6, sweat pricking her forehead. Up in the stadium commenting booth, she heard Finley Elkwood in the midst of announcing the team rosters: "That's almost a whole new lineup for Ravenclaw. With five new players, we don't have an idea of how good they can be – or not, if that's the case. This game will be a good barometer, in any case, before both squads head into the meet of their schedule against Slytherin and Gryffindor later on."

"Blast that smug prick playing Seeker for me," Vale snarled to Jamie and Maisie. "Little idiot keeps smiling all doe-eyed at me like he's a puppy. Except like one of those puppies that actually has plague, and as soon as you pet it, you get infected."

"That's rather horrifying, Vale, but alright."

Kicking up into the air, Lily felt her stomach's churn easing. The cold air snapped her out of her sleepiness, and the bitter rush of wind rushing down her throat settled down her nerves. She patted her broom once for good luck as Chloe rose next to her, their Seeker still looking petrified as Master Higgs went to release the Snitch.

Swallowing her last jumpy nerves, Lily leaned over on her broom and said, "You okay?" Chloe shook her head, her lips sealed. "You're gonna be fine. You've gotten the Snitch in practice. It's just like Vale said. We did it all already. You beat everyone else to get here already, so you're the best Seeker in our house. And since we're the best house, well…do the math. That smiling kid in yellow over there can't touch you."

Chloe looked at her like she was crazy, gulped as Master Higgs let the Snitch go, and took off high into the air. _Really wish I meant all that_ , thought Lily. _Wish I was good at speeches, too_.

A moment later the Quaffle was free.

"There they go!" shouted Finley. "Reynauld picking off the Quaffle for Hufflepuff and heading up the left side, Tress and Glover on his flanks."

Lily tuned him out. As soon as Vale missed the tip she fell back on defense, burning back towards Royce and the goals as the three Hufflepuff Chasers hurried down the pitch in a delta formation. Maisie's Bludger scattered them in all directions a second later, and as Reynauld moved into scoring position along the lowest goal, Lily hurried to cut him off. He reared back to throw and launched the Quaffle forward, but Lily stuck out her hand just enough to get her fingertips on it, sending it off-course and into an easy save from Royce.

"Solid defense form new Ravenclaw Chaser Lily Potter!" Finley called. "Early penetration for Hufflepuff goes nowhere, and it's Ravenclaw back on O, Leng taking the Quaffle from Marlowe, passing to Torres – "

Wayne didn't spend any time waiting around. As soon as he picked up the ball he zoomed downfield, blowing past two Hufflepuff Chasers and juking out the third right before a Bludger cut off his progress. He dropped the ball down to Lily, who saw a clear line of attack towards the lowest two goals. She rushed at the right one, drawing Tanner Wynch down to meet her with a sly grin plastered all over his face.

She wasn't going for the right goal, however. Just as she closed in, she pulled left at the last second, and –

"Ah!"

Lily dived as a Bludger came out of nowhere, missing her face by inches. A hand swatted the Quaffle away and she swore as Reynauld for Hufflepuff took off away from her, the ball tucked under his arm. _Dammit. Already screwing up_.

Master Higgs blew his whistle as Wayne threw an arm at Reynauld as he dove past, missing the Quaffle entirely but clipping him across the chin and nearly decapitating the Hufflepuff Chaser.

"Foul on Torres, and a penalty shot for Hufflepuff. Nasty blow, right on the neck – that's where Quidditch lacks in safety equipment, more progressive critics of the sport would say. Helmets and padding would at the very least go a long way," Finley chimed in. "Ravenclaw's captain isn't too happy, either."

"That's a play on the ball, mate!" Wayne snapped at Higgs as Vale pulled him away.

"Don't argue, you idiot!" she growled in his face. "And this isn't boxing. Lily, don't be afraid of the Bludger. You have to keep your eyes on more than one thing at once."

She nodded and licked her lips as Reynauld head-faked Royce and finally scored the match's first goal, eliciting a groan from the blue-clad half of the crowd.

"Defensive struggle so far in this one, and both teams' Beater play has been better than advertised," Finley called out as Vale took the Quaffle upfield after the score. "Ravenclaw's new Beater Maisie Davies has been phenomenal in the early going – of course she's from a good stock and all, her father Roger Davies being Ravenclaw's captain here during the nineties. That's Leng to Torres, back to Leng, evading Quarlson's off-target Bludger and sending it up high to Potter, action curling high around the right curve –"

Lily dodged past one of the Hufflepuff defenders and shot horizontally across the field to lose her tail. Her broom wasn't the fastest on the pitch, but it had maneuverability and agility to spare – enough to keep the Hufflepuff defense honest. She curled in underneath a Chaser's reach, slid by an errant Bludger that flew way overhead, and made a beeline towards the goals. Wynch pivoted high to intercept her again, and his height made her visibility difficult. She tried to spot a way around him to the goal, but at the last minute as he converged, she spotted another blue-clad player tailing the play far to her right.

She hugged her broom, clutched the Quaffle with two hands, threw an empty hand left to pull Wynch's attention, and instead fired a pass to her right.

"And Ravenclaw scores!" Finley shouted as Lily rolled past Wynch. "Beautiful no-look pass from Potter to Torres, who rifles in a shot behind Wynch for the goal on the center hoop! Just like that, all tied up again here as Hufflepuff regroups."

"Fuckin' A, guys!" Vale shouted, shaking Lily's shoulder as she shot past. "Great pass and great shot!"

Wayne clapped her hand as they pivoted back on defense, all the wariness gone from his face, replaced by a hunger that Lily felt creeping up in her own guts. Adrenaline rushed her through her veins now, all anxieties and nerves long gone, thrown out by the rush of the action and the throbbing crowd all around.

The Chaser battle devolved into a defensive scrum as the Beaters unloaded and the Keepers intercepted a number of shots. The lead changed over and over, and by the time Lily finally maneuvered around Wynch and lined up a shot on her own, the score –

"And Ravenclaw scores again!" Finley shouted. "Fifty all now after Potter scores her first goal as a member of Ravenclaw's team. Beautiful dive from below and around Wynch's outstretched arms as Beaufort's Bludger scattered her pursuers – and that's why the game's played in three dimensions, folks."

"Yes!" Lily screamed, heading back towards her side of the field and pumping her fist. "Yes!"

Wayne clapped her hand. "That's the shite, mate!"

In her excitement, Lily let her eyes trail down to the sidelines. Instantly she wished she hadn't out of embarrassment for her cousin, as Rose was in the midst of a happy dance that "awkward" only politely described.

"Hey, you said no looking down there, yeah?" Wayne teased.

"I don't give. Shut up," Lily said with a bright smile.

The game got nasty in a hurry. A Bludger unseated Lily not two minutes after she'd scored, forcing her to dangle from her broom for a few seconds and watch helplessly as Hufflepuff roared past Royce for a score. Maisie retaliated not thirty seconds later by smacking a Bludger at point-blank range into Hufflepuff Beater Quarlson's head, forcing a play stoppage for several minutes as he regained his senses. As Ravenclaw turned the lead over again with two quick goals, Lily forced another play stoppage as she bum-rushed Hufflepuff's delta of Chasers as they pushed up the field, causing two of them to collide and knocking the Quaffle into the stands near where Professor Vos and Professor Yaro watched.

"That's not legal, come on!" Tanner Wynch snarled, coming out to his goal as the two teams argued. "Potter can't just bull-rush a Chaser who isn't carrying the damn Quaffle! That's not a play on the ball!"

"Don't you start, you didn't even have a good look at it!" Vale snapped at him, putting herself between him and Lily. "Quaffle was way inside the legal area for a hit. Get out of here."

Higgs nodded and shrugged to Wynch. "It was clean. Tight formation like that, that kind of hit's legal."

"That is not! Not at all!"

"Stop arguing and go back to your goal, Wynch, or I'm giving you an Unsportsmanlike Conduct and giving them a penalty shot."

Vale pulled Lily away from the shouting match. "Screw that kid," she grumbled. "If I wasn't poor as hell, I'd pay somebody to make him make a save with his face."

Lily looked over to the staff table as they reset. Yaro looked beyond drunk, stumbling and leaning against a table, dressed in a neutral shade of brown and laughing uproariously at something she could only guess. _Was my move that funny? If so…well, awesome._ Vos, on the other hand, wasn't hiding his allegiance: He wore a navy blue cloak and gave Lily a subtle thumbs-up as the action kicked up again.

Finley kept the commentary going at breakneck speed as the brutal match opened up. "Ravenclaw pushes their lead to thirty after that last goal by Torres, making it ninety-sixty over Hufflepuff. Largest lead of the game for either squad in a long match that's seen a decisive lack of scoring and some hard-nosed play all around, and look up there, folks – both Seekers diving towards the far side of the pitch, heading not far from the Hufflepuff goals!"

Lily saw. Chloe was way behind her competition, struggling to catch up as both had seen something.

Vale saw the danger immediately. "Come on!" she shouted, corralling the Quaffle, blowing past a defender, and heading upfield with Lily and Wayne in tow. A Hufflepuff Bludger picked off Wayne at midfield, eliciting a loud string of swears behind her as Lily urged her broom to move on. There – something gold shot about just above the grass. Chloe was never going to make it in time, Hufflepuff was going to win.

"Go! Down!" Vale ordered her, soaring up.

Lily figured it out. As Vale clutched the Quaffle and circled away from two converging defenders, Lily shot towards the midway point between Hufflepuff's Seeker and the Snitch. She shot towards the boy in yellow, pushing her broom to go faster, faster, as fast as it could to throw up a blockade. She beat him to the spot, and Vale bulleted a pass at her. The Seeker saw at the last minute, pulling up as Lily swerved high to catch the Quaffle and send him off course. Chloe shot under her at the Snitch –

The crowd exploded as Finley cried, "She's got it! Chloe Meredith with the Snitch, pulling out the save for Ravenclaw! A beautiful bit of teamwork there to clear the way for Meredith, and Ravenclaw hammers out a decisive defensive-minded victory, two hundred-forty to sixty, over Hufflepuff! Hufflepuff drops down to third to open the season, Ravenclaw up to second behind Gryffindor, and all eyes are eagerly set on the next rounds of play for the season as Slytherin will have a chance to dig out of its early-season hole against these Ravenclaws next."

Lily almost crashed into the ground. She leapt off her broom and dashed up to hug Chloe, both girls crying tears of joy. Wayne collided with Lily, the two friends laughing and jumping up and down in excitement. When she looked up to the stands, she saw Rose throwing up her hands in excitement and even Scorpius trying to hide a stupid little grin on his face. _That guy_.

Al nodded at her from the stands and tapped his hand over his heart. Lily could only smile back.

* * *

The next week, Lily felt like she could do everything. The Hufflepuffs in Charms shot ugly looks at her and Wayne in class, but it only made her feel higher up on her mountain peak. She didn't care if they were saying bad things behind her back now. _We beat you fair and square. I even scored_. _So ha_. Her surging confidence felt like a drug high she didn't want to climb down from, like something in her blood made her capable of doing anything.

Even taking a stupid risk, if the moment was right.

One such incident devolved from a disagreement into a shouting match with Kaya after Charms class, from there leading to Lily swatting Kaya's bag off her shoulder. How was she supposed to know the girl left her ink bottles all around the outside of the bag?

"Lily!" Kaya shrieked as ink flooded all over her textbooks and parchment. "You prat! That's my stuff!"

"Then don't scream at me like a banshee when you don't get what you want!" Lily yelled at her right as Professor Teague stepped out to witness the commotion.

That earned her a Saturday night detention in short order. Lily fumed as Logan pulled her away down an empty corridor and gripped her shoulders. "What are you doing?"

"What am I doing? _She_ get all up in my face about whatever the hell she's on about. 'Cuz she's Evie's bratty little Rottweiler."

"Lily, listen to yourself. You're just ranting now."

"I'm ranting?"

"Yes! You're letting your Quidditch win get to your head. It's cool that we won and you did a great job, but if you get bigheaded, you're no different than Evie and her posse."

Lily folded her arms and stuck her lip out. "You don't sound very happy we won."

"See? A week ago we would've had a normal, calm discussion about it, but now you get mad at me for trying to explain," Logan sighed. "You're the one who's good at keeping their head under pressure. I know Kaya's a git, but you don't sound like you at all. Come back to reality."

She huffed and pulled away from him, but…dammit, irritating guy that Logan could be, he was sort of right. A little bit. How could she explain to him that who she _usually_ was was an anxiety-ridden mess worrying about this thing and that? She _liked_ telling Kaya to go screw herself. She _liked_ exerting herself for once. Vos had told her in her first year to stand up for herself. He could surely agree with this.

Unfortunately for her, he sided with Logan when she went to see him before class on Friday night. "I'm not saying don't be confident, Lily. You always needed a dose of that, because too often you doubted you could do anything and rolled over for other people. That doesn't mean go and pick fights and get detention, though. Stiffen your backbone when you need to, and use your head when that's more appropriate. Sometimes being confident means letting an idiot gas on and prove that they're an idiot. Stooping to their level...you get the idea."

 _Fine. Sir._

As Saturday rolled around and the high from the match began to wear off, however, Lily felt the same old insecurities creeping back into her mind. _You idiot_ , a little voice mocked her, _you didn't even win the Quidditch game. You scored two measly goals. Chloe won it. So that's a free pass to go make a fool out of yourself in front of your classmates?_ _Stupid girl, you don't even have a brain to use_.

 _Logan probably thinks you're unhinged._

 _Wayne and Nat didn't say anything when you and Kaya had a go. Wayne's probably gonna tell the whole team you're clinically insane. Nat probably wants nothing to do with you_.

 _Maybe you deserve to be alone if you can't handle a minute bit of success_.

 _You WILL be alone because you CAN'T handle your business_.

The facts told her otherwise as Vale applauded her and Wayne's efforts at Saturday morning practice, but she couldn't shake the nagging thoughts that shredded her newfound confidence to pieces as soon as they'd gotten their claws in. They'd had a lifetime to build up, after all, and one week of success wasn't going to uproot them.

By the time she left detention late on Saturday night, she felt utterly deflated again. The castle corridors were empty and quiet, shadows long and dancing in wild frenzies as flames flickered in the torches along the wall. Lily's hand hurt from scribbling hundreds of lines, and all she wanted to do was crash and start a new week.

As she stepped out of the Grand Staircase onto the fifth floor landing, however, something blurred in her peripheral vision. Lily spun her head around just in time to see a black, shadowy trail darting through the fourth floor connector.

 _Oh, not this again_.

Lily looked around, hesitant. Nobody else was out and about. _I'm probably just seeing things_. _Go to bed, idiot_. She couldn't just leave it be, however. Lily sighed, dropped her book bag in an alcove, pulled out her wand, and trooped down to the fourth floor. She stepped as lightly as she could, her shoes hardly even tapping the stone floor, measuring her breathing so that she didn't exhale too loudly and alert anyone. Anxious, Lily reached the connector, pressed her back to a column, and peeked around it.

The shadow was right in front of her. It hadn't seen or heard her, instead inspecting the dark corridor windows as if admiring the architecture. Something was funny about the way it looked almost human…almost familiar, but Lily couldn't wrap her mind around just who she thought it looked like. Thin and wiry, with those beady little yellow eyes… _I'm not seeing things, that's for sure_. She dodged behind the column as it looked over its shoulder. Hazarding a glance a minute later, Lily caught the shadow turning about the end of the passage, in no hurry but leaving her playing catch-up.

 _What am I doing? I should go tell someone. I should get a teacher_.

She didn't. She followed, heading down the corridor the shadow had just left. Lily held her wand out in front of her, careful not to make any noise. Just as she got to the end of the hallway, she looked around – straight into a pair of beady yellow eyes.

The shadow howled and reeled back. Lily fell backwards, scrambling and holding her wand aloft as the shadow spun and raised an arm. Like the last time, it opened up its magical ring, that same seductive band of green energy containing a gray void within it, neon strands bending in towards its dark singularity at the center. Lily scrambled to her feet as the shadow charged into the void, and in a burst of irrational confidence, she thrust her wand at it.

 _Whoosh!_

A bright white flash blinded Lily, and she winced and shielded her eyes. When she looked up, she stifled a scream.

The corridor wobbled. The floor bounced up and down like she was a boat in some demonic sea, the walls caving in and stretching out, the ceiling seizing up and opening to reveal a boiling gray sky lit by an unnatural green hue before closing up again, only to open a moment later. Wind rushed down the corridor from nowhere in particular and headed to the same dead space, howling with cries, shrieks, laughter, chatter, groans, and shouts of joy. People – but not people, as they too fazed in and out like ghosts, turning solid before withering away into nothingness – flew all around Lily, _through_ her even, her presence a nonentity.

That smell on the wind…she'd smelled it before, once before. Cabbage, old cabbage…and musky earth, like after a rainstorm when the worms came out…

Lily backed into one of the wavering walls and covered her mouth with her hands. _What did I do?!_


	37. Out of Time

_**Thanks for the awesome reviews again, mywildcharmsforyou and Jjidizzle122! Apologies for the cliffhanger, haha, but it's to set up a chapter where Lily bites off a bit more than she can chew with a certain character whose motivations won't be clear for several books. So, let's dive into the void and see another side of Hogwarts…**_

* * *

The unnatural wind blew Lily's hair across her face. It carried both the chill of a winter frost and the damp heat of a summer afternoon, and Lily was caught between clutching her arms to keep warm and stripping her shirt off to avoid soaking it with sweat. Her heart thumped so heavily she feared it would rip right out of her chest, and her throat clenched in fear, her breaths ragged and strained. She swallowed hard as the shades of people wandered around her, through her, down the corridor both ways, passing in and out of each other, chatting, idling, two even dueling with wands outstretched down the corridor, ghostly fighters who were anything but ghosts.

 _God. What is this place?_

Forcing one foot in front of the other, Lily inched down the corridor, her wand in hand. Not a single one of the shades reacted to her presence. Some looked as if they could have sprung into Lily's Hogwarts and fit in, yet like in her dreams, others wore outrageous outfits and old, pointed hats, and when she drew close to them, she heard what sounded like an ancient English dialect, some language abandoned for hundreds of years. All about her Hogwarts swirled, the corridors rumbling and quivering, the ceiling opening up as the sky boiled, the clouds swirling together so violently that for a moment Lily could have sworn she'd seen them come together in the shape of a skull, something like a snake uncoiling from the mouth.

She picked up her pace as she headed down the hallway she both knew so well and didn't know at all. _There has to be a way out of here. Out of this. Somewhere_. She'd just wanted to find out what the shadow was up to, what it _was_ , even, not get sucked into this.

Feeling nauseous from the world writhing around her, Lily trotted down the hall all the way to where she knew the Grand Staircase to be. It wasn't how she knew it, however: Where usually the stairs moved slowly and pondered between landings, every staircase whipped around in all directions at once all around her, connected from one floor to the next, in flight, splitting free to move, linking every landing everywhere in the chaotic kaleidoscope all around her. It was as if the entire Grand Staircase was in a superposition, all the stairs everywhere the possibly could be at any given time all at once. Ghostly people carried on up and down them as if nothing insane at all were occurring, each and every one of them – _thousands, tens of thousands, more –_ all carrying about their business and oblivious.

Lily's brain threatened to overheat.

She grabbed her head with both hands, whimpering in confusion at the overwhelming nature of it all. Then – _up there_! On a landing several floors above her, something pale and sickly stuck its head out. She recognized it at once: It was the _thing_ from all those nightmares and bad dreams, that gray-white, scaly, human-yet-not demon that had watched her like a silent sentinel as she slept. It floated just off the ground high above her, its four arms just as grotesque as she remembered them, its yellow, beady eyes arranged in the same circle around its head. Through all the shades and ghosts she could see it, the only other thing she was sure was solid and physically _here_ – wherever "here" was.

Just as quickly as it peeked out it dashed away behind cover. Lily yearned to go after it, but as she dashed up to the stairs, she felt a sickening feeling in her stomach. The stairs were in front of her – but everywhere else as well, both solid ground and empty space phasing in and out where she planned to ascend. She drew back, afraid to go forward – and she was a long way up from the ground floor. There was no surviving that fall if the stairs wouldn't hold her.

"Don't mind the height, Ms. Potter. The stairs are nothing to fear."

She whirled around. A wizened old wizard stood straight and tall behind her, dressed in a long blue robe dotted with stars that fell to the floor. He was thin yet tall, with silver hair and a long beard that fell far past his chest. His nose was off-center just enough to be noticeable, and Lily recognized his bright blue eyes, not because she'd ever met the man, but because she'd seen him countless times in other ways – on the pages of books, in photographs in her home, even in her mind as her dad described Albus Dumbledore in his stories.

Lily took a step back, dumbfounded, her head pounding, her confusion deepening. "You – you can see me? Standing here?"

"Of course I can see you, Lily. I may have grown old, but I have yet to go blind."

"But," she stammered, words jumbled in a heap on her tongue, "you're dead. Your tomb's out there on the shores of the lake! You're in history books, and – and you can't come back from that to be here!"

Dumbledore mused, "Quite right. There's no spell that can bring the dead back to the world of the living. If I were speaking to me, then, I would have to assume I was something else."

"A ghost?"

"No, not a ghost. That's an existence very few choose to live after death, and one I could never opt for. So if I'm not alive, and I'm not dead, I must be something else. Perhaps an echo, or someone's memory of me. If you're not too overwhelmed by this place, I would suggest we go for a walk and try to figure it out ourselves."

Lily wanted to shake her head, curl up into a ball, close her eyes, and wake up back in the Hogwarts she knew. Something about Dumbledore – or whatever form of Dumbledore this was – settled her nerves. His even, gentle voice instilled just enough assuredness that she nodded, pressing her lips together and glancing up towards the landing again. The creature, demon, wraith, whatever it was, had gone.

Dumbledore followed her gaze. "I wouldn't worry so much about him. Something tells me he's just as afraid of you as you are of him. For now, at least. So while we have the time to ourselves and the company of all the busy tenants around us, let us take a walk down to the second floor."

"What is that thing?" asked Lily as she followed Dumbledore down the stairs, ghostly people all around them. Men and women in paintings hurried in and out of their picture frames, then back in before leaving once more. "And what is this place? Is this Hogwarts?"

"I was going to ask you that," Dumbledore said as he led her down to the second floor landing. Peeves flew overhead, pelting shades with water balloons, the droplets passing right through Lily. Peeves also flew up the Grand Staircase, holding his gut with laughter, while also flying down to the second floor landing, careening across the ground floor, and heading in a thousand different directions everywhere. "I can name the creature you saw. It is a phantasm, a dark creature that preys upon thoughts. They're loosely related to Dementors, foul creatures in their own right, and leave behind not sadness and despair but fear and self-doubt. Unlike Dementors, they can be….perhaps tamed is the right word?"

Lily felt a surge of dread. "Tamed? So someone's using that thing to…to run around Hogwarts making people afraid?"

"Maybe. A wizard willing to go to the trouble of planting that in Hogwarts might have other uses in mind, however," Dumbledore said as they walked down a corridor on the third floor. "There is a lot to see here, of course."

Gears turned in Lily's head. "Is it a watcher, then? Is it looking for something?"

"A hard to tell matter, but I wouldn't rule out that possibility."

Dumbledore led her down a dark hallway, this one throbbing much more than the one she'd first stepped into, the roof gaping open and revealing the hellish sky before slamming shut and warping together. Figures continued to fly by, all the way to and through a large gargoyle at the end of the corridor that jumped in and out of its stance.

"So what is this?" Lily said, her voice still shaky. "Is this some sort of dream Hogwarts? One where that creature – phantasm – isn't a shadow any longer?"

"What would your eyes tell you?" Dumbledore asked her.

She shook her head, trying to clear it, only for the jumbled chaos around her to fill it up in a blink of an eye again. "It's like everything that's ever happened in Hogwarts is happening all at once, and…and over and over again. It's like a library with the entire catalog on one page."

Dumbledore smiled. "A good observation. I myself might even categorize it as…jumping into the mind of the castle itself, seeing its memories all unfold around us. If we could use Legilimancy on stone and wood, I wonder if we might not see something like this. An unfolding of what Hogwarts can remember, from its construction all the way up to a single point of time – when you stepped in here. As a matter of fact, that's why I brought you here to my office."

"Your office?"

The gargoyle leapt aside as they reached the end of the corridor, jumping back into place through Lily and making her squirm out of discomfort. She didn't feel a thing, but the notion of having a stone gargoyle phasing right through her very real body was all wrong.

"It was my office, at least," said Dumbledore, leading her up stone steps to a grand, circular room. "I suppose it still is my office if we're viewing Hogwarts like this. It just so happens to be every Headmaster's office, then."

Pictures jumped onto the walls and fell off again only to return, pictures of old wizards and witches, one of them Dumbledore himself, although his picture only stayed up for a fraction of a second before leaving for a full minute. Everything seemed to fill the room: Shiny metal magical gadgets Lily couldn't place, a Pensieve, something she recognized from her reading, photographs, trinkets, mementos, even a phoenix growing and dying and rebirthing in flame in a matter of seconds.

A shade of Headmaster Maribor pounded on the table in front of Lily, shades of Dumbledore and a dozen other wizards and witches passing right on through him.

Dumbledore squinted at the people. "IF you're right about this being a giant library, Lily, then perhaps…we can check out a single book?"

He clapped his hands, and suddenly everything in the room stopped moving – all but for two shades in particular. Before Lily could ask him how he'd done that, she stared at the two and gasped. One was Dumbledore, identical to the man – echo, memory – next to her, except for his ghostly nature. The other was a teenage boy with messy brown hair, glasses, and green eyes that were only too familiar. _Harry Potter, student._

Dumbledore snapped his fingers, and the ghostly Dumbledore shifted. "Magic," he said to the ghostly Harry, "especially dark magic…" Harry reached out and touched a ring on the desk, recoiling as he did so. "…leaves traces."

"I was referring to instruments of Voldemort when I spoke to your father then," Lily's Dumbledore said, "but traces aren't limited to dark magic. At a place like Hogwarts, someone looking could find some very rich traces, indeed."

Lily said nothing. She barely heard him: Instead she watched Harry, Harry the boy, not a full-grown Auror and father but nothing more than a student like her. All of this felt unnatural, but she wanted to stay, wanted to hear him say something, as if he was with her here in this strange, bizarre Hogwarts she'd entered.

Dumbledore clapped his hands, and chaos resumed. "I can see this is making you uncomfortable, Lily."

"Not the only thing," she said, staring at the space crowded full of shades now. "I don't get it, though. Is that phantasm looking for traces of magic in Hogwarts? The entire thing is magic. It would have to comb through more than a thousand years."

"Fortunate that it seems to have all the time in the world at its fingertips," Dumbledore said, looking around wistfully. "Perhaps you'd be more comfortable with someone familiar instead of me, Lily?"

She glanced at him, confused again. "Sir?"

"I believe Albus Dumbledore would have been fine with 'professor.' At any rate, maybe thinking this over with someone you call a friend would be better?"

Lily stepped back, feeling for her wand again. That crypticism didn't sound like something the Albus Dumbledore she'd read and heard about would say. He clapped his hands once over his head and disappeared in a burst of smoke and white light. Lily caught her breath, looking around for where he'd went, when someone scooted out from under the Headmaster's desk. It wasn't the Headmaster, though – it was Natalie.

"This better?" Natalie chirped, her arms akimbo and her lips turned up in a bright smile. Her scarring was gone, her skin smooth and natural again like it had been during her first two months at Hogwarts. "I think Dumbledore was a little more fun from that wise, kind old man angle, but this can be fun, too. Playing the whole free spirit angle."

Lily whipped out her wand and aimed it at her 'friend.' "You're not Natalie."

"Well obviously, I wasn't Albus Dumbledore, either."

"Who are you?"

Natalie sighed and rolled her eyes. "Gosh, Lily. You have to be so serious all the time. Fine, fine. We've entered the no fun zone. Gimme a sec."

Like Dumbledore had done, Natalie clapped her hands and disappeared in a whoosh of light. Lily kept her wand raised, expecting someone dangerous to come charging at her. She missed on the charging part, but she had no doubt the man who replaced Natalie was dangerous in some fashion.

The no-name man from the train appeared in a flash of white smoke and reclined in the Headmaster's chair, his feet up on the desk. Clad in the same scarlet jerkin from the first mysterious time Lily had seen him, he tossed a whole carrot up and down in one hand, his bored gray eyes watching it tumble end-over-end through the air.

"Don't like the theater, Lily?" he asked, catching the carrot and biting off the very tip of it. "You read all those books for fun, I'd have thought you'd appreciate a little drama."

Lily didn't lower her wand. "You! Why did you bring me here? What do you want?"

"You mad, girl?" the man said. "I didn't bring you anywhere. If I've got it right, _you_ brought yourself here. As for what I want – I'm not a fan of traditional snacks like sweets or crackers. More partial to vegetables and healthy fare. Or wine, I'm a huge fan of wine. I've had a taste for Argentine reds as of late. Anyway, I'd like to eat this."

"Then tell me what this place is. A straight answer."

He shook his head and clicked his tongue. "I'm not a fan of demands. Besides, do you really think your wand's going to do anything to me? Summoning a train car out of nowhere on the Hogwarts Express is perfectly normal in your book, but this is a step too far?"

He held up the carrot length-wise. "You ever see a timeline? Well, duh, of course you have. Importantly, it's a _line_. That's how we perceive time. A beginning and an end, the beginning a long, long time ago, the end being the exact present. What if we just turned the line?" He rotated the carrot until it lined up straight away from Lily, looking like a great orange circle now. "Well, look at it _that_ way, and it doesn't look anything like a line at all. Fact, it looks like all the time is in one dot. Wonder what would happen if you did that to a certain period of time, or a certain place. Like, oh just for fun, let's say…Hogwarts School between its inception and the present?"

"So what do you really want? Why make this?"

"Me? I didn't make this. I'm a traveler, a tourist. I just popped in here. Like you. That's not my phantasm up in the upper corridors, thinking over how best to either kill your or punt you from here as it scrambles to cover up its mistake of letting you in in the first place. I just showed up for fun."

Lily didn't ask _how_ he had gotten in here. She didn't even want to know. The less time she spent with this creepy man, the better – but unfortunately, he was the only other one in here who even realized she was there, not to mention having a lot more knowledge about this place than she had.

 _Crunch._ "You even listening at the part with your dad and Dumbly?" he asked. "The whole magic leaves traces part? Well, if someone, I don't know, was interested in acquiring knowledge and knowing more magic than anyone else on the face of this planet, Hogwarts might not be a bad place to look. Whatever kind of man would that be? Surely you've never had a run-in with a man who had an object that could manipulate time, have you? Hm."

A jet of dread washed through Lily's veins. "You're saying Sion – or his mentor character, Genseric – did this? They're searching for something, or trying to learn something at Hogwarts?"

"There, she's got a brain after all, folks!" the man threw up his hands and looked around at his ghostly audience. "No applause. They must not like your performance."

"So we're…we're pulled out of time, then? Or in some version of Hogwarts that's like that, one where we can see everything but can't do anything?" Lily summarized, still trying to wrap her head around it all. "And…and Sion and Genseric are…are spying? Or searching? For a trace of magic that…that…wait, go back. They're spying or searching history or memories in Hogwarts in here with that phantasm as the actual spy, but how can they even do this in the first place? Hogwarts has all sorts of magical defenses."

The man looked amused. "Now she's getting to the good stuff. Why don't you tell me how the phantasm got in? A shadowy but real beast that's more like sand and shadow than creature out in the normal world, hm."

"Well, if it can come in through here – "

"Please, girl. This isn't an alternate universe. That thing's a real creature, not a dream. It exists in the real world. We're still in the _space_ of Hogwarts, even if we're not in the _time_ of Hogwarts. Better yet, tell me what's going to happen with the phantasm after its masters find what they're looking for."

"I don't know! What are they looking for?"

"Well, I _thought_ she had a brain, folks. Disappearances around Durmstrang, an attack near Godric's Hollow – where your grandparents are buried, and a town that's probably got its fair share of powerful traces of magic after Voldemort came through - and you can't come up with a measly guess? Don't be boring, Lily."

She harrumphed. If this man knew anything, and she expected he did, he certainly wasn't giving it up. "I don't know! I'm not going to find out sitting in here with no place to start! Why can't you help me?"

The man lowered his face and stopped eating. "You want me to help you? Really?"

Lily froze. Something about that seemed far too sinister for her liking.

"Come up with a decent name to call me yet?" the man said, watching as ghostly Dumbledore paced around the desk. "I've got one if you're being boring today. How about Bacchus? Roman god of wine and festivals and fertility and revelry. Seems like my kind of fellow. Call me that. Oh, and you might want to figure out a way out of here. Playing Dumbledore, I told you the phantasm was afraid of you for the time. Seems like it's changed its tune. It's heading down the corridor this way."

"What?" Lily gasped. She spun around, seeing nothing but the back wall of the office. _How does he know these things?_ "How do you know? Whoever you really are?"

He bit off another bite of carrot and rolled his eyes. "Honestly, _that's_ your question? And I'm just a man who happens to know some magic. What, you think I'm some sort of higher being? This isn't a fantasy book."

"How do I fight that thing?"

"I don't know, how?"

"Fine! How do I get out of here?"

"And go where?" the man – Bacchus – said. "Are you asking for my help?"

"Back to Hogwarts! My Hogwarts! The one I know!"

"The one you know? That could be a lot of places. You officially asking me to help you out of this, or not? I didn't get you into this, and I don't do many favors, Lily. I consider myself a trader as well as a traveler. When I give a service, someone gives one back to me. I told you on the train I like fair business."

She didn't have time to think on what that meant. The phantasm burst into the office, even ghastlier up close. Its ring of eyes bore into Lily's, and it snarled with a dry, raspy growl, its four arms outstretched wide as if to engulf her.

" _Flipendo!_ " Lily cried, swiping her wand at the creature. Her spell hit it in the head, knocking it back into the quivering wall, but only making it angrier. " _Incendio!_ Yes, help me, dammit!"

Bacchus snapped his fingers. The phantasm lunged at Lily but stopped, smashing into an invisible wall, snarling and shoving against it as it tried in vain to attack her. Lily stepped away as far as she could, hugging the office's rear wall as it bounced and writhed behind her.

"Send me back to Hogwarts, please," Lily panted, terrified of the beast just a few feet away that thrashed in its attempts to come after here. "Get me out of this place."

Bacchus held up a hand, then balled it into a fist and raised his index finger. "We're dealing now, Ms. Potter. You agreed, and that's one." He lifted a second finger and upon raising a third, added, "When it gets to three, and it will, then we'll meet somewhere picturesque, and you'll agree to three of my favors. Fair is fair."

"I won't ask you for anything else," Lily hissed at him. "I just want to get out of here."

"Of course you won't. You're thirteen, you know everything. I should be asking you for help."

The man pulled open a drawer in the Headmaster's desk and pulled out a wand. He aimed at nowhere in particular and swung it in a wide arc, shooting green fire out of the tip until he completed a ring. It flashed once, bright, its center filling with a grayish void as strands of magical energy coursed out from the center towards the ring's edges. Behind the invisible wall, the phantasm shrieked and slammed its arms against solid air, struggling to get at Lily.

Bacchus beckoned her in. "The Hogwarts you know, correct?"

Lily scowled at him. "Yes."

"In you go then. Oh, and as a freebie, if you decide to come back in here again, just kill that damn phantasm and set its remains on fire and you'll have an easy way back. That thing's supporting this whole screwed-up nether world. Knowing you, you're going to come back. Until next time."

Feeling uneasy about the way the man smiled at her, Lily shot one last look at the screaming phantasm and stepped into the portal.

 _Whoosh!_

She fell on hard, wet cobblestone. It was dark, nearly pitch black except for the glow of a dim white light far behind her down a narrow, tall, stone-walled passage. She thought she heard whistling, but she knew she heard something else – a dull, low, groaning noise, much closer and nearby. Something slithered down the passage in front of her, and when Lily lit her wand, she spotted a black tentacle sliding past an intersection.

Her head started to hurt. _I suppose I do know this part of Hogwarts_. _He didn't lie_.

"Shite," Lily swore, pulling her wand.


	38. The Stakes of Man

_**Very long author's note before the chapter gets started: Big ups for the reviews, MakingMarauderMischief and mywildcharmsforyou! Charms, glad you liked that chapter – I had a feeling that was going to be a love/hate one for most people since I decided to jump into the bizarro deep end of time and memories and start making deeper divergences from the conflicts of the original series; happy that worked out for that chapter. Definitely won't be the last time something weird happens at Hogwarts, haha.**_

 _ **MMM – Glad you're enjoying the story! I know it's easy to lose some readers on long journeys like this, but it's good to see those who like all the little detail and building that goes into a story this size with multiple books planned out. Really glad you like Lily: I wanted a protagonist fit for the situation at hand, one where she needed room to grow and the brains to learn and understand all the crazy stuff thrown her way. Ravenclaw was the right fit as I pushed Lily to be just as much a scientist and investigator as witch in that she searches for answers and truth to problems, magical problems included, even when she has no idea how to fight them – something that sets her apart from her father, who was much more magically powerful but tended to rush to judgment (see Chamber of Secrets.) Hence why Lily's good at subjects like Herbology and Potions, one that require more hands-on learning and step-by-step problem-solving rather than just wand-waving.**_

 _ **Regarding Scorpius, romance is going to be complicated in this story (surprise), but suffice to say, he has a major, major part to play, both for his own last name and in regards to his future with Lily. As for Rose, she and he are not good. Not sure how a ton of people have pushed Rose, but I'm pointing her as taking after her father – which means she and Scorpius have zero future together. She has her own parts to play like all of Lily's family, but she's more involved with James and Al (and much later down the road, at that.)**_

 _ **If you'd like a short intro/reminder on a couple of the main characters (fitting, since I've introduced, oh, a hundred or more of them by this point):**_

 _ **If you want an actor close to Jurre Vos, take Tom Hardy from the film**_ **Warrior** _ **, age him twenty years, give him some scars and rugged features and a South African accent, and you're golden. He's a hulking, brutish sort of dude who's running from his past (spoiler for this chapter…sorta) Sion is largely his counter, a man who seeks validation for a past that's as empty as his own heart (Daddy issues 101). He's not big or strong like Vos, but thin, lanky, and quick, treating magic as a weapon to wield and an art form – hence his use of a staff rather than a wand, and his fighting style as more of a dance than a duel. He's much more of an experimenter with strange and arcane magic. That's largely the point behind him; he's the heir (or the scion – hence how I got the name) of a man (Genseric) who practices a magical form that's been hidden for ages. As for his likeness...he's heavily based on Roy Batty from**_ **Blade Runner,** _ **so actor Rutger Hauer from the 1980s is a good place to start. The third part of their trio, Alanis, is the most traditionally recognizable magician of the group. She's motivated by a Ministry that fell to pieces during Voldemort's second rise, and armed with all sorts of knowledge, she's out to make a difference. Whether that's good or not, well, read on. Looking for an actress to play the part; Eva Green would be a dead fit.**_

 _ **If you're more interested in the kids, Lily…red hair, yeah, cross Sophie Turner and Rose Leslie and I wager you're on track for what she looks like. I figured she inherited Ginny's strong jaw. It's a powerful physical trait. I took a lot of influences from Jon Snow in**_ **Game of Thrones** _**to create Logan, so Kit Harington is a good actor to base him around. Natalie and Wayne, the other two in my gang of four, are more people I drummed up in my head; go nuts with your imagination for them. There's a huge reveal regarding characterizing the gang of four (+ Scorp and Hugo) later in this book, so I won't spoil anything.  
**_

 _ **In this chapter, we finally see what digs at the heart of Jurre Vos, and Lily continues to play Hermione's informant as the winter holidays loom…**_

* * *

The black tentacle stopped in mid-slither in front of Lily and curled back around. Another one followed, slapping the ground with a wet _thunk_ , and then came a dinner plate eye, gelatinous and oozing like a squid's, transfixed on Lily.

"Ah!"

She keeled over, clutching her head as color, images, and sounds foreign and familiar exploded in her mind. Lily stumbled back onto her rear, clawing at her forehead and squeezing her eyes as tight as she could. Through the din of a thousand voices all shouting in her head at once, she could hear Vos's octopus with a hundred eyes rounding the corner of the hallway and advancing. All she knew was that she couldn't open her eyes now – she could see _all_ of that thing's eyes staring back at her.

"Lily? The fook?"

A rough hand grabbed her by the shoulder and hurled her down the hall to her right. _Whap!_ Pain exploded through her ribs as she hit a loose pile of cobblestone, and finally Lily opened her eyes just enough to let in the tiniest window of light. Professor Vos stood out in the corridor intersection, his head turned away, his eyes shut tight as he held his wand aloft. A slimy arm slapped the ground next to him, its tip poking at Vos's shoes as something huge, bright, and white erupted out of the end of his wand. Lily thought it a glowing bison or buffalo or something at first in her blurry state, but as her head cleared, she realized what he'd fired, a piece of magic she didn't expect to learn for quite some time – a Patronus.

The tentacle slid away from Vos's foot, swatting at the Patronus as if offered some interesting, evasive new snack before disappearing behind the intersection entirely. Vos dashed up to Lily as she tried to stand, stumbling and falling down again. Her head ached from the nameless man – Bacchus – dumping her out of the otherworldly – other _time_ ly – Hogwarts right down into the bowels of the castle in front of that monster, not to mention throbbing from the ordeal of traveling through a place where time didn't act at all how she understood it to act.

"The hell are you doing down here?" Vos shouted, grabbing Lily by arm and forcing her against the wall. "The Headmaster and I threw up enough defenses around this place after your first year to stop Voldemort reincarnated, let alone a student! And do you even know what time it is?"

Lily shut her eyes again and shook her head. Her story was pure insanity, even to someone like Professor Vos, who knew his fair share of crazy occurrences. _Sorry, professor, I took an evening stroll and decided to chase after a smoke monster, only to jump straight out of time itself! My bad._ If Bacchus was watching this, he was probably laughing his head off at the "interesting" predicament he'd put Lily in.

Vos pressed his finger to Lily's neck, feeling her rapid, weak pulse, and then pulled her away. "Can you walk?"

She grimaced and nodded, but stumbled in her first few steps, her balance off, her head still tumbling over and over from taking Vos's beast's mind-zapping at point-blank range. Vos shot a look down the dark hall, picked Lily up in his arms, and said, "I'm taking you up. Stay quiet. Before I get to the hospital wing, though, I want a word."

Lily let her head droop against his powerful shoulder as he carried her up the creaky stone lift she'd last descended with him, Logan, Sion, and the wendigo eighteen months prior. Her eyes sank as Vos waved his wand at wavering piles of rubble and walls of quivering, empty air, clearing out magical defenses as he carried her up. Torchlight glowed in Lily's eyes as they hurried. She wanted nothing more than to sleep off this horrible night, forget even following after the phantasm in the first place, forget the nightmares that had plagued her this term, nothing but return to Ravenclaw Tower and go back to thinking about Quidditch and how not to fail in Charms.

 _But that's not true_ , a little voice snickered in the back of her mind. _That's not true at all. You've been given a taste and now you want to know more_. _Quidditch and Charms can't satisfy you for long_.

Vos carried her to a gold-inlaid wooden door on the ground floor of the castle, a stone gargoyle flanking each side. He looked each way down the hall before throwing his elbow into the door, knocking it open to reveal an empty room full of mismatched, dark wooden furniture – an old wardrobe here, pine, oak, and mahogany chairs there. Vos deposited Lily in a chair next to a glowing fireplace and whipped his wand at the end table beside her. A white, ceramic mug full of steaming brown drink popped up at his command.

"It's hot chocolate. Drink it," he said, taking another look out the door before closing it and waving his wand again. "Don't want to be overheard. I've a feeling you didn't take a leisurely, rule-breaking stroll at one A.M., but other teachers might not be in a listening mood at this hour. Drink. And tell me how you dropped in front of my prized pet out of thin air."

Lily sniffed and clutched her mug. "There's something here at Hogwarts," she whispered, staring straight down into her hot chocolate, concentrating on nothing but the ripples her breath made on the brown surface. "Something prowling around in the castle."

"Something like what?"

She couldn't hold it all in. Bit by bit the night's events bubbled up out of Lily, from detention to pursuing the phantasm to a Hogwarts locked out of time itself. The only thing she hid was Bacchus – her guide, puppet master, entertained audience, whatever he was, she figured he'd come down harshly on her if she spilled their secret rendezvous. Instead she told Vos she'd fled the phantasm in the timeless realm, stumbling across another portal by chance and ending up deep underground.

To his credit Vos listened with nary a word the whole time, nodding here and there, conjuring up a cup of coffee and taking quiet sips, glancing up at Lily's eyes and pressing his fingers together at more dramatic parts. When she'd finally tired herself out and tears of exhaustion threatened to tear free from her eyes, at last he said, "I know the creature. It's Sion's, another pet in his zoo of monsters. It's the same one Alanis used to corral Antonin Dolohov and two other Death Eaters almost twenty years ago."

"What?" Lily gasped.

Vos rubbed his eyes, took a drink of coffee, and said, "Look, let's use a metaphor for what we're facing here. Voldemort, he was a villain of the heart. He killed your father's parents, he feared death, he was as pure evil as evil comes. He fought conventionally, wand magic against wand magic, love triumphing over hate. Classic story. That is not what this is. Genseric and Sion are men with no hearts, or if they have them, their hearts are stone and ice. They don't fear death, and they experiment with magic in ways Voldemort never did – not with life and death and love everything that made the history books, but with space and time and ontology and things non-magical scientists and philosophers have dived into for millennia. For someone like an Antonin Dolohov, this type of magic was wholly unknown. We trapped him in Germany, lured him into a fight by destroying the camp he was using as a hideout, and when he stepped into a vortex Genseric had pulled out of time, he was totally unprepared to fight us. We crushed him, and that is the reason why you need to stop pursuing these kind of things, Lily."

"Stop?" Lily said. "I'm not afraid of…well, I'm only a little afraid…of dying, professor! I can fight!"

"No, you can't, and you're not listening. You're not facing off something that sees death as scary at all, Lily. Antonin Dolohov today, the Dolohov that hit Godric's Hollow and Durmstrang, is so far beyond death that he'd beg for it on his knees if given the option. Unfortunately for him, he no longer has a voice to beg with. That is what the Headmaster, who knows all this after I told him, and I are trying to protect you all from. The phantasm – it's Sion's spy, we can put up safeguards against it – isn't so much a threat. But if something _else_ is up, that is. I don't want you getting hurt going out of the way to uncover secrets that should be buried."

Lily felt angry. She didn't know why – it was a kind gesture on Vos's part – but fury rose in her at his dismissal of her intention to find out more about the phantasm and what Sion and Genseric wanted. "Why? I'm just your student."

"No, I'm saying it because you're _not_ just my student!" Vos yelled, standing now, his face darkening before the fire. "I've lived a shite life, Lily, one where everyone I've cared about has died or turned their back on me. My father. My mother. My friends from the nineties when I left the magical world and fought wars with the Foreign Legion in Bosnia and with companies in Sierra Leone and Ethiopia. Sion. Genseric. Alanis. All of them left me in one way or another. My whole fookin' home _country_ is a footnote in history! I have accomplished nothing and made no impact on this planet! Everything up in past has gone up in flames to the point where I've seriously considered in the past pointing my wand at my temple and shouting _Avada Fookin' Kedavra_. Everything until I came to Hogwarts, alone and embittered, and found out that it's a joy to teach. And now, when I have children to teach and colleagues to call friends, I am not going to allow a bunch of monsters to come in here and take that away from me!"

He clenched his fists and turned away from Lily, hurricanes swirling across his face. She shrank into her chair. All she'd wanted was answers, some sort of explanation, and instead she'd received Vos dumping almost fifty years of a stormy life on her. It was a sobering thought: _I have Mum and Dad and Al and James and my family and friends. Professor Vos has…me and Logan and everyone who takes Astronomy?_ She couldn't imagine living such a long life like that, or even having the motivation to keep going if she did.

 _If someone came along and threatened to take away Nat and Al and Dad…I guess I'd react the same way. Especially because all three of them would want to fight, too._

"'m sorry," Vos murmured, still staring at the fire, his arm pressed into the stone fireplace above it. His shadow danced in the flickering flames, pirouetting in a tight, fanciful dance one moment, twisting into a ghoulish, wispy demon the next. "You're a kid, you shouldn't have to hear this shite or get caught up in this. World's too cold and uncaring as it is. You're the one who had a rough night, not me."

Lily wanted to say something. The air had gone out of her Astronomy professor. Despite what Bacchus had warned her about on the train, and despite the many questions she still had about Vos's past, she saw him more and more as her mentor here at Hogwarts – a different role from the one her Mum and Dad played, not a guide of the heart or of family and love, but one of thought and mind and capability. Here was a man who had the strength to show his colors in front of his student at the end of the day, someone he'd known for barely more than two years, even after the whole world had turned on him. Her father had the courage to standing up to Voldemort and emerging as a hero to the wizarding world – and for being a good father. Vos had a different sort of courage, the kind of strength to face ashes and despair and to shoulder it while plowing on.

"Don't worry about the phantasm," Vos said quietly. "Maribor and I will make sure we make it a lot harder for it to keep prowling around for whatever Sion and Genseric are after. I'm happy you told me. As much as I criticize, you make me proud of facing up to something far beyond your age and abilities. Now come on. Hospital wing."

Lily didn't want to go back to that place where she had so many bad memories from her first year, but the ward was a different place now that Healer Justman had left. The new Healer, none other than Professor Longbottom's wife, Hannah, was a kind, if demanding, woman – _drink your potion, no exceptions, Ms. Potter. Another one in the morning_. She left the curtains around her bed open, what with the ward empty except for her, and when Lily awoke to the morning sun creeping in through the window, she felt actually refreshed. _It's almost as if a Healer is trying to heal me._ _Shocking!_

She didn't spill everything to her friends, even Logan – she only told them she'd had a run-in with the phantasm, letting them in on the shadowy demon that had infiltrated Hogwarts sight unseen.

"Clearly someone brought it in," Natalie deduced as soon as the story had left Lily's lips. "We should go investigate. Someone's guilty."

Logan was less convinced. "Nat, since Lily's the one who's had experience here, maybe we let her make the decisions?"

Lily was grateful for his intervention. The last thing she needed was Natalie leading her friends off on some wild goose chase that would get them all caught up on this dark road. Yet as much as she wanted to heed Vos's advice, she couldn't help but yearn to head after the phantasm again. Even if the Headmaster and Vos were aware of it and had set up defenses, how did they know it couldn't come back? It had access to all of Hogwarts – _all_ of it – and as far as she knew, only she had seen what it was capable of in full.

Hannah Longbottom let her out of the ward in a day, and the rest of the term passed by in the blink of an eye: Quidditch practices, the first visit to Hogsmeade as a third year, and Gryffindor pounding Hufflepuff to the tune of four hundred-thirty to two-hundred broke up the rush of classes. Defense Against the Dark Arts intensified, and while Lily felt like she still trailed class leaders like Evie and Natalie, she was getting the hang of spells such as the Shield Charm and Stunning Spell. Progress, if nothing more.

" _All_ of you are going home for the holidays?" Natalie wailed in Herbology a week before the end of the term. An angry, white-leafed, vine-covered plant wriggled and wrestled with her as she struggled to keep it under control. "You're just going to leave me here all by myself for…three weeks?"

"Trent's not. Neither's Marie. So two people in our house and our year," said Wayne, tried to pluck a leaf but earning a smack from the plant's vines for his efforts. "Have fun with their company. Trent's a cool guy."

Natalie huffed, "Yeah, but it's not really the same. Should I be trying to squirt this plant's goo at McLaggen while I have the chance, then? I mean, this is our last Herbology class until January."

Lily wanted to ask the omnipresent question around her best friend – _Nat, why don't you want to go home? What's going on? –_ but before she could prompt her, the plant vomited a stream of black gunk in her face when she went to pluck a leaf. Revolted, Lily grabbed a towel and wiped the mucous off of her goggles and cheeks.

"Working hard!" said Neville as he rounded their table. "Yeah, the Sapoliads tend to spit, Lily. Watch out for that. That's what safety equipment's for."

 _Way to tell me after the fact, professor._

She was still rubbing her face as she and her friends walked up the grounds towards the castle at the end of class. The sun had already gone down as they stepped into the Entrance Hall, the last vestiges of orange and red glowing along the western horizon. Hogwarts was picturesque at the end of autumn, the trees having lost their leaves, snow covering the Scottish hills all around the castle, even the chilly wind that made Lily clutch her winter robes tighter around her and huddle closer to Logan and Wayne to keep the wind out.

The end of the term also brought other unpleasant surprises, however.

Professor Yaro stood with his arms crossed and his face contorted into a scowl in the Entrance Hall, facing off with Declan Stennis. The Ministry official held out a clipboard, scrawling on it with a quill while in the middle of saying, "I've never known Durmstrang for being particularly adherent to Transfiguration, Mister Yaro -= their focus has long been on active magic less suited for everyday use. Advanced defensive spells and dueling, fairly impractical things for a more peaceful age, no? No Voldemort lurking the countryside today. Just terrorists in Godric's Hollow. How much exactly is John paying you?"

"Gentlemen don't discuss salaries," Yaro sneered. "Take it up with the Headmaster if you are so inclined. I am not beholden to you, tax man. This is not my country. Gringotts does not have my allegiance. I am here to teach. The only Galleons I count are the ones on my tab at Rosmerta's."

Yaro flipped a rude gesture in Stennis's face and stormed up the stairs. The Ministry chief looked amused before he spotted Lily, breaking out into a feigned smile and saying, "Ms. Potter, returning from class, I presume? Too eager to get to supper, or do you have time for a humble man?"

 _Humble my arse._ She wished she could say that, but she knew better. "Plenty of time," she said, waving Natalie away before she could start with some crazy idea. "Is something the matter?"

"No, nothing wrong," Stennis said, urging her down an adjacent corridor. Portraits galore stared down at them, pictures of knights in shining armor and witches casting powerful spells and hunting dogs chasing foxes and much more. One in particular caught Lily's eye, a beautiful pastel picture of the sea crashing against the White Cliffs of Dover, the ocean so vivid and blue it almost came off of the painting. "But I question some of the financial decisions of Hogwarts and its Headmaster. All these paintings, for instance – who really views them? Or some of the staff, many of whom I believe could be replaced for half their salary. There are many wizards and witches in Britain competent enough to take jobs like the one filled by that Linas Yaro. A Durmstrang man when Durmstrang has been in the news so much lately, it makes me question, no?"

Lily smiled. _Git_. It was a good entry point to probe him for information, however. "I guess it's more about if Hogwarts is safe or not. After what happened a year and a half ago, maybe the Ministry knows a way to keep Hogwarts safer?"

"Oh, plenty of ways. I think keeping the school in British hands would be a good start. These foreign professors, a liability of I ever saw them. Imagine Aurors teaching all your subjects. What you could learn! Michael Corner coming to teach was a good start, but envision someone like your father both instructing and safeguarding Hogwarts's student body!"

 _That is a shite idea_. "That's an inspired idea. Didn't you say you had a friend in the German Ministry? How do they do it?"

Stennis plastered on a smile and fingered his gaudy sun pendant. It glowed in his fingers, wobbling just a bit before relaxing when he let it go. Something about it felt odd to Lily, almost as if she felt warm just by looking at it. "Oh, it is different over there. In Germany, they send most of their children to Durmstrang, Beauxbatons in France, or Rubroflos in Tuscany. No domestic school and national pride like we have here, no? Hogwarts is a national treasure, best we keep it that way. Tell me, what does your father think about having such lax attitude towards letting in wizards from elsewhere? I would think it is a lapse in security if nothing else, and I know the Minister feels the same. In Britain we can keep an eye on her people, but from outside…well, we cannot watch who we have no jurisdiction over, no?"

Lily faked a smile. Her defenses were falling, and much more with this man would lead her to saying something she would regret. "I think Dad just wants to keep people safe and stop dark wizards before they show up. That's why he's an Auror."

"Ah, interests aligned," Stennis said. "He should talk more with your aunt, that Ms. Weasley, Hermione is her name. She has been quite disruptive, too much idealism, I think. I have not spoken with her children here, your cousins, but perhaps it is better I do not. At least Harry Potter has taught his children well. I wager you have a fine career ahead in the Ministry should you want it."

 _Yeah? I bet Hermione would love to hear your opinions_. "It'd be an honor," Lily said. "If you could throw in a good word, I'd love to get to know more about what I could do for the Ministry." _And what it could tell me_.

There was one thing Lily disagreed with Professor Vos about: Alanis Fell's criticisms of the Ministry seemed more pertinent each time she talked with Stennis. After the attack on Godric's Hollow, Lily wondered if that woman had the right idea after all.


	39. Christmas Divisions

_**Thanks to Psych0Geek, mywildcharmsforyou, and MakingMarauderMischief for the great reviews last chapter! I hear you on the note, Psych0; I do Bold+Italic for differentiation, but I'm considering splitting up the note to beginning and end of chapter in the future if it's that long. MMM: Good thoughts about both Bacchus (especially, heh) and Vos's creature, the latter of which I always saw as a big dumb puppy that accidentally fries people's gray matter. Charms: Ha, glad Yaro's turning out well. I didn't detail the staff too well in Book 1, so I've tried to go more in depth here.**_

 _ **In this chapter, we take a slight detour from head-spinning stuff for the holidays as we learn what happened in Godric's Hollow, the Potter siblings realize what the future holds, and Hermione and Ginny have a standoff. Note that Ginny may seem a little OOC; I tried to get into the head of a Ginny who had aged twenty-odd years and had three kids.  
**_

* * *

"Don't go talking to Dad, Lils. He's not been in a good mood ever since that Godric's Hollow shindig."

Lily scowled at James. They sat with Al on a hill overlooking a flat, barren field in Ottery St. Catchpole, no one in sight for miles around. The leafless trees spread out in spindly patterns, a light dusting of snow speckling their branches after refusing to melt despite the warmer-than-average December. Despite it being the day before Christmas, it didn't feel much like the holidays to Lily: Harry had spent more and more time at the office as of late, coming home when Ginny ushered Lily off to bed and leaving before she woke up. She hardly saw him, and her mother wasn't taking her questions.

"Dad's working on a lot," she'd said when Lily had asked about it. "Don't push him, Lily. He'll tell you about it when he's ready. He's always liked having the space to do what he needs to do."

Not a very descriptive answer, thought Lily, although it told her one thing: Whatever had happened at Godric's Hollow had been more serious than the _Prophet_ had reported. The newspaper's account of a skirmish with Inferi didn't sound like something that would shake Harry Potter.

"Duh," Lily drawled. "Mum already told me that like five times since we've been home, James."

He shrugged, aimed his wand at the rock Al had hurled off towards the village, and jabbed his wand at it. "Then listen to her. _Confringo._ " His spell hit the rock dead-center, blasting it into a fiery cloud that rained stony crumbs down on the grass.

"I really have to go through two years of you lording over using magic while I can't?" Al groaned, pitching another rock for James to blow up. "Gonna be the longest two years every until I'm seventeen."

"Your birthday's in October, get over it, brother. Twenty-two months is hardly two years. Complainer," James said, firing off another round of _Confringo_ and blasting the next stone into ash. "

Lily rolled her eyes. "Thanks. I get to have two years of that and two years of both of you lording it over me. There are probably Muggles watching you blow up things, James. They're going to think you're a wizard or something."

"You see any Muggles? Go ahead and call the Aurors, Ms. Goody-Two-Shoes. Not like I've ever had Dad yell at me before."

She sighed as James blew up another rock. _Headcase for a brother_. "Well if you're going to get mad at me for wanting to talk to Dad, then you tell me why he's being all avoidant."

" _Avoidant_. You Ravenclaws and your big words."

"That's not a big word."

"Fine. You Gingers and your big words."

"James, really?"

"You're the only one of us three with red hair, you're left-handed, you say things like _avoidant,_ and you don't want us blowing up rocks. I'm concluding you were corrupted in the womb."

"Maybe you stunk up the place first."

Al interjected, "I don't know anything about that, but about Dad, Uncle Ron told me – "

"Al," James cut him off with a sharp look, all the humor drained from his face in an instant.

Lily felt her face flush with heat. She hated when James did that. It was okay to banter with her and poke fun at her hair and things she said, but passing on useful tidbits was too far. Of course, she was the youngest, so she must still be the baby. _Can't tell the baby anything! She might get hurt!_ Never mind fighting Sion or wandering off to chase the phantasm. There was no changing being James and Al's little sister. No matter how old she got or what she did, that'd be the same forever.

If James stopped taking that so seriously, however, it'd go a long way towards easing her frustrations, especially since he didn't take much else seriously.

They were quiet for a while, James tapping his foot to a silent melody in his head, Al pitching rocks off the hill, Lily simply lying on her back and looking up at the horsetail clouds drift across the cold blue sky. "This is kind of weird," said Al at last.

"Familiar, then," James added.

"No, it's like this – you go off to work or whatever after next term, then it's just Lily and me here. Then just her. This our last real winter how it's always been. Next year it's different."

Lily frowned. "That's really depressing. Now I'm just imaging being alone on Christmas with just Mum and Dad for two years."

"What? I'm not going to abandon you, sis. James might."

"I'll have to abandon you first," James scoffed. "Maybe I'll call in a plague scare and get you quarantined."

A small panic flooded through Lily's mind as James and Al traded barbs. She'd nearly had a nervous breakdown ate age seven when James had gone off to Hogwarts for the first time, leaving her with just Al for daily company. She'd pleaded with Ginny to go off to Hogwarts as a nine year-old on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters to no avail, and the days and weeks after that had been worse. Yes, she'd had Hugo for company nearly every weekday as their grandmother taught them from The Burrow, but she'd felt a gnawing hollow out a space then without the brothers she'd spent every waking moment with. It was like the dull weight that pressed on her chest during her first two weeks at Hogwarts, thrown into an unfamiliar house with unfamiliar people who then wanted little to do with her. She'd beaten that feeling then, but she didn't want to feel that emptiness again.

 _And I'm probably just reinforcing James's beliefs by overthinking this. There goes the baby, pray she can handle it…_

"Did you ever even settle on what you're doing next summer?" Al asked, breaking Lily out of the mental toilet flushing her happiness away at a frightening speed.

"You sound like freakin' Aunt Hermione, bro. But yeah. Teddy Lupin's gonna help me get in with the Department of Magical Games and Sports. Mum and Dad were cool with it when I told them. Thought it sounded great. Working with Teddy and Quidditch, and getting paid for it. Can't go wrong."

Al grimaced. "Real stressor there."

"Oh you want to go about that? What'd you say in your career counseling? I know you fifth-years have 'em in December."

Al went quiet for a minute and said, "I thought about working for Gringotts."

"Gringotts? Aunt Hermione's going to cut your head off. Why?"

"It's not working for them, but it's just…it's good experience. You learn stuff."

"Good experience for what?"

Al hesitated again, glancing at Lily for a moment before saying in a much softer voice, "I kinda want to teach. Professor Longbottom and I talked about it for a long while."

James said nothing for a moment, digesting that information before breaking out into raucous laughter. "You mean _teach at Hogwarts?_ Ahaha! Oh boy, Al, what in the world? Are you screwing with us?"

"Well, come on, I mean…I just thought what it'd be like to be Headmaster one day – "

Lily glared at James as he slapped the ground in mirth. "What's so bad about that? That sounds cool. At least he's not jogging around behind Teddy Lupin forever."

"Oh, you guys," James chortled. "I'm just envisioning Al perched over a stack of books and being all, 'Class, this is very important for your futures, now listen!' That's actually the funniest thing I've heard in a while."

He got up and dusted off his trousers, adding, "I'm goin' home before you say something so hilarious I bust a testicle. I'd walk with you guys, but that takes too long. See you at dinner, squirts."

With that he spun on his spot and Apparated away with a _pop!_ Lily glowered at the empty space he vacated. James needed to learn how to turn down the banter and just _listen_ sometimes, she thought. Al's crestfallen expression only convinced her she was right.

" _I_ think it sounds great," Lily sniffed. "It's ambitious. And James is just being a poop for kicks."

Al sighed. "Yeah, I know it sounds stupid. Who knows? I have two more years, maybe I'll want to do something else after that."

 _Well that's rather sad. Way to kill our brother's dreams, James_.

Lily brushed dirt off her back, let Al pull her up by the hand, and held his arm as they started the walk back home. Whether out of honesty or out of wanting to get back at James, Al said, "You still want to know what Dad told me? He and Mum didn't want to tell you until…well, something had been done about it, because it's not at all nice stuff."

 _Yes, tell me!_ She was sick of the kid gloves; only Hermione and Al seemed to realize that. Lily concealed her urge to yell and replied, "I mean, if you don't want to, you don't have to."

"No, it's fine, I just don't want you to worry too much. You have a lot on your plate and you've gone through enough already, sis," he said.

"It's fine. I want to hear. Really. I've said five words to Dad since we got home."

Al rubbed his nose, reddened from the chilly air's bite, and said, "Look, whatever…whoever…made that scene at Godric's Hollow, according to Dad they weren't just interested in making a mess. He said – well, he told me – that they…well, dug up the graveyard where our grandparents are buried. Were buried. Were because, well…they, er, took them."

Lily felt numb for a minute, her brain running loops trying to process Al's stuttering explanation. Finally realization hit her, swinging in like a blast of lighting: "They were grave robbers? They raided our grandparents'…remains?"

"Not just them – "

"Why?" spat Lily. Anger blended with confusion, swirling into a red concoction that made her feel dizzy. "Why, what did they do? What, because they got murdered or just for kicks?"

"Dad didn't tell me," Al said, holding her shoulders and looking her in the eye. "He said it wasn't just them, but Ignotus Peverell and several other magical people who were buried there. Dad said they finished doing that and just ran, that he didn't really defeat them but just held them off for a while. He's…not taking it all well. So, James is right there – don't talk to him about it, okay sis?"

 _Like you need to tell me that_ now. She could almost hear Bacchus laughing in her head, that enigmatic man cackling to her about _magic leaving traces_ and all that crap he'd spewed doing their little sojourn. So what? Did magic linger about Godric's Hollow from when Voldemort had done the deed? If so, how did looking into that in any way justify vandalizing her grandparents' final resting place? They'd died like heroes, and now someone had come and ripped them out of the ground like weeds.

Lily tried to put on a nice smile for the rest of Christmas Eve as Ron, Hermione, Rose, and Hugo came over to the Potter household, but she felt only fury and bitter bewilderment. _Why_? The question kept running through her head as she forced laughs to Rose and James's jokes. _Why_? Harry and Ron sat away in the kitchen, conversing in low voices, no one else interfering in their discussion. Lily threw looks that way from time to time, desperate to hear more, yet also feeling anguish for her dad. _Have your parents murdered, avenge them, and then watch them insulted after death…_

It felt to her as if Sion and his mentor had reached out and smacked her right there in Ottery St. Catchpole.

She walked away from the laughter and fun after a while, heading up alone to her room, leaving her brothers and cousins to enjoy Christmas Eve. Her blue Ravenclaw flag looked forlorn and shadowy in the dim light from the hallway, her stuffed Phoenix Sunny suddenly so lonely and despondent next to her pillows. _Why is this world so screwed up?_

Lily grabbed her stuffed animal and hugged him, burying her face into the soft plush. She was too old and worldly by now to imagine she could ward away her demons just by thinking so, but she wished she still could. That kind of thing had worked once. Now her brothers were heading off into the world, she was in school and facing responsibility, and all sorts of darkness was baying before the door. Part of growing up felt all kinds of wrong.

A knock on her door roused her. She breathed in sharply, setting Sunny down and looking over her shoulder.

"Can I come in?" Hermione said, peeking around the door. After Lily nodded, she came over to her bed, sat down, put a hand on Lily's shoulder, and said, "What's wrong?"

Lily shook her head. "Nothing."

"Not a very convincing nothing," Hermione said. She opened her mouth to press the issue, thought better of it, and resorted to patting Lily's hand instead. "There's nothing bothering you? You'll feel better if you get it off your chest. Nothing from school or friends?"

"No," repeated Lily. The last thing she wanted to do was create a scene over admitting Al had told her what had happened at Godric's Hollow and get him in trouble. He wouldn't trust her again after that, but she knew her aunt well enough to know she smelled something amiss – and wouldn't give up until she unearthed the source of it _. Huh. Bit familiar_. Lily didn't have to tell her what was on her mind _right now_ , however: She had enough going on to fill hours of conversation, and placating Hermione with something more up her alley was a better call than dumping her feelings. "Maybe that Ministry man at Hogwarts. That's all."

 _Right call indeed_. Hermione's eyes lit up and she said, "Your letters have been a really big help, by the way. You're doing a great job. That German Ministry official you said Stennis is friends with – I did a little digging and found out he's been taking lots of leave time over there over the past several months. Sounds fishy. Is something you learned upsetting you?"

"I think that man's trying to get some teachers kicked out," said Lily. "He keeps talking about my Astronomy and Transfiguration professors like they're dangerous because they're foreigners, and thinks they're paid too much and other things. But I like them both."

Hermione smiled. "The new Minister brought in some close-minded people from Gringotts. They're just worried about what happens a few months down the line and have forgotten that we fought against intolerance against Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Don't worry, Lily; some of us haven't, and not just me – not just the crazy extremists out there who want to do things like take down the Ministry or whatnot, either. I'm trying to work something now to give more authority at the school back to your Headmaster. I'm pretty confident in it. It's going to be okay. Hogwarts isn't going to go bad. Not while I'm still here, and not when you're doing such a good job."

 _If only_ , thought Lily as her aunt hugged her. It sounded so simple when it was all just normal people fighting normal people over stupid, silly things like money and laws.

Ginny waited outside as Lily followed Hermione out of her room. "Is everything alright, sweetie?" she asked, holding Lily's hand and looking at her with a concerned expression. "Not feeling good?"

"I'm fine, Mum," Lily mumbled.

"We were just chatting," Hermione finished for her. "I know I always I wanted to get back to Hogwarts during the holidays. The break's really long to be away from learning and catching up."

Ginny frowned at Hermione with a look that didn't buy her answer.

Christmas the next day at the Burrow felt like a quieter affair than normal. Teddy Lupin had left for France to spend the holidays with Bill, Fleur, and the Weasley kids abroad, Lily's Uncle Percy was vacationing with his family in Portugal, and George, with the joke shop doing as well as ever, had headed off with his family to see his wife Angelina's parents for the holiday. As happy as Lily was to see her grandparents – making a big show of getting another hand-knit blue sweater from her grandmother in the process – the lack of any family excitement meant her thoughts lingered on the previous day's gloom. Unwrapping presents did little to lift her spirits, and neither did overhearing Hermione's supposedly private, less-than-pleased reaction to James admitting his career intention.

"Magical Games? Really?" she said to James in the top-most bedroom of the Burrow. Lily and Al listened in from a vent below, hearing the conversation in full detail. "What pushed you to do that?"

James sounded defensive: "Well, I mean, Teddy's in it, and I talked with him about it, and it sounds like a department where the people like what they do and have a good time. That's great by me."

"Well, sure, but…James, it's kind of a running joke," Hermione sighed. "No one takes anyone from that department seriously. No one there ever moves up or does much of anything outside of some hand-shaking."

"Teddy says they do all kinds of stuff."

"I know you're great friends with Teddy Lupin, but, he's…he's not a great example."

"He was Head Boy at school. What's a great example of he's not?"

"Sure, but after that he just sort of coasted in life. I think his goals now are limited to snogging your cousin Victoire and having fun."

"Sounds great to me. Not the Victoire part."

"James, you have potential. You're a good student, you did real good with your OWLs, and you could make a real impact doing something meaningful! You could be an Auror, or travel and work for an international Ministry, or start a business like George, or, I don't know."

Something scuffled along the floor. "I really don't care about that kind of thing. I'm not Dad or George or you. If that's so bad, I got nothing to say."

"James – "

A door slammed, and a moment later Lily and Al heard pounding footsteps tromping past the door. They huddled to go over what they'd just listened in on, but a moment later more footsteps sounded, heading up the stairs rather than down. Lily pressed her ear to the vent just in time to hear Hermione say, "Ginny, do you know what – "

"What'd you say to him?"

A long pause followed. Lily recognized her mother's tone, and it wasn't nice. "What do you mean what did I say to him?" Hermione asked.

"He looked furious. What'd you say?"

"I…we talked about what he wants to do after Hogwarts. I told him I don't think he's making a great choice."

"Oh? How come?"

"Ginny, are you defending that? James is a great kid with a lot of potential, he could do all sorts of great things, he could really _be_ somebody, not just throw it away."

"He already _is_ somebody. He's James. And he's my son. I want him to be happy, not become someone he doesn't want to be because someone else made him do it."

"And this is going to make him happy forever?"

"He can figure it out. I trust him. But I'm really _not_ happy that you're trying to mold my kids behind my back and Harry's back."

This entire row made Lily so uncomfortable her stomach heaved. Christmas or not, her mother and Hermione were getting into it.

"Molding your kids? And what is _that_ supposed to mean? Because if you haven't forgotten, they're my nephews and niece too, and I care about them."

"Really? Because Harry told me all about something happening at the Ministry this past summer with regards to my daughter, and Lily was almost in tears when you and she came out of her room last night." Lily shook her head frantically as Al shot her a disappointed look. "I don't care about whatever you do that makes the _Prophet_ call you out all the time, and I can't stop you from telling Rose and Hugo anything, but Lily's my daughter, and she's thirteen. She's barely a teenager. She doesn't need to get caught up in whatever little schemes you're involved in. Leave her alone."

Hermione laughed, but it was a derisive cackle, not any chortle born of good feelings. "You hypocrite! You were determined enough to fight Death Eaters in your fourth year at Hogwarts."

"And my first year Voldemort possessed me, and that turned out very badly. Lily already got involved in one bad incident at school. I want her to have the chance to be a kid. She's not Harry. She's not you or me. Letting her learn and play and make friends and feel heartbreak is enough for me. Why do you have to force your agenda on my kids?"

"I'm not _forcing_ anything on Lily. She's quite happy biting off a big helping and she's handling it like a champ. She has a brain. Although it seems like I've overestimated yours for years now, because if you had any sense, you'd drop this overprotective act and see that your children have a chance to be more than just your children."

A loud _smack_ made Lily wince. "Don't you dare tell me how to parent my kids," Ginny snarled. "This isn't my house anymore. I can't tell you to get out, but I wish that I could. Someone needs to tell you off, because apparently my brother has no backbone and won't do it in your home."

The door slammed and loud stomping raced past Lily and Al's room. They sat under the vent in silence, staring at each other with wide eyes. Lily felt dizzy, her throat parched. _Great,_ she thought. _Now I'm ruining my family because I want to help and know what's going on. It'd really be nice for something to go right this holiday._


	40. Tearing at the Seams

_**Really great reviews, MMM/Charms/Psych0/emanreus – I like hearing where I can improve, and you've all hit on one thing in particular I think I've struggled with: Illustrating the dynamics of the Potter-Weasley family. That's the drawback of sticking to Lily's narrow point of view and missing on Harry, Ginny, Ron (totally neglected), and most of the old gang – emanreus, you're right in that I rushed ahead too far, too fast with the Gringotts/HermioneHarry/Alanis game. As for the Minister of Magic, fair point, although I intended (didn't do a great job explaining, unfortunately) his role as less a specific man taking the job as much as an institution (Gringotts) "buying" the role, then plugging in and playing a proxy (hence Maribor's "thieves" comment in Ch. 1 of Book 2). Money speaks, even over war heroes, and especially in a contemporary political context where twenty years ago might as well be ancient history.**_

 _ **As a side note, glad to see differing opinions about Hermione vs. Ginny – that's the intention!**_

 _ **Tension builds in this chapter as Vos details what could be worth raiding Godric's Hollow for, and Lily struggles to handle her swelling anger and emotions at a situation that's well out of her control…**_

* * *

Lily hadn't wasted time searching for answers to the questions that hounded her. She hung around after her first Astronomy class after the new term as her fellow Ravenclaws trudged back down the steps from the portico, rubbing tired eyes and yawning in the wee, dark hours of a clear January morning. Stars twinkled overhead, the constellations vivid in the black sky, the moon little more than a milky sliver as the nebulous galaxy bloomed in haunting brilliance. The icy air made Lily's teeth chatter as she clung her black winter cloak to her shoulders.

Logan hung back with her. "You've already got questions on the star chart thing?"

"Just on the homework. Go sleep," said Lily. "I'll see you guys in the morning."

He sensed she wasn't just interested in how to describe constellations in a foot and a half of parchment. "Yeah, I think I had something to ask too. I'll stick around. We can go see him together."

Lily twisted her fingers together with a hint of nerves – she wanted to ask Vos about things that had nothing to do with stars. If anyone was going to stick around and hear him out with her, though, Logan was the only one who would understand the conversation. _Fine. Together_.

Vos was packing up telescopes when he noticed them hanging back. "You two already asking about Perseus and Andromeda?" he asked jokingly.

"I've got a different kind of question," said Lily, cutting straight to the point.

"Great. I'd love for it just to be about school for once. My office, then."

Vos's office never changed, except for the old, upbeat music that sounded a century old playing from his magical phonograph. It was cozy and warm here in the dead of winter, lit up as if by the soft orange of daybreak and smelling faintly of smoke and exotic spice. Lily plopped down in a cushioned chair near the office fireplace, Logan beside her, as Vos poured himself a cup of coffee. He drained the dregs into his mug, frowning and swirling around the little drink he'd managed before pulling his wand and filling it up to the brim.

"You two have good holidays?" he asked between sips of the steaming drink. "I don't know how serious some of your families take Christmas here in Britain. It was never much of an occasion to me."

Logan opened his mouth to say something, but Lily spoke first: "I heard more about what happened at Godric's Hollow. About what those people Sion's using did in the graveyard my grandparents were buried."

Vos fretted and half-closed his eyes. The shadows of the fire made him look much older, Lily thought. The scars and creases on his face became gorges and canyons in the flickering light. His curled eyebrows turned his look into an eagle's glare, and even his short hair thinned in places. It had yet to recede, but the furry mane of a younger man must have faded years ago. Overall, it was a look of a man turning more and more into the one who had lit his feelings slip to Lily in the staff room before the break, one trying to get away from the past that kept chasing.

"Before you leave Hogwarts, you might try taking a class in small talk," he said, his voice turning gravelly. "Most people don't immediately dive into magical horror the minute they start a casual conversation."

"Maybe I don't want to talk to those people, then."

Logan shot her a disapproving glance before saying, "It was good seeing my family again."

"Ya? You have a sister, right?" said Vos, looking happier to discuss everyday life for a second "How's she?"

Logan pondered the question a moment before answering, "Little shaken up, but…she's been through worse."

 _Whatever that meant_. Lily's company turned more depressing with each sentence. Logan didn't _look_ happy to see his family, she thought – on the contrary, he looked downright dour about it. The corners of his lips tightened and his eyes unfocused, as if his thoughts and his words were in two different places.

"Rank business in the Hollow," Vos said with a slight nod. More coffee. "I don't really know what you want to hear, Lily. There's powerful magic in bones, lingering magic and memories that transcend death. For someone who wants information and knowledge and doesn't have moral qualms about doing unsavory things, ya, that's a nice area to look."

"Why my grandparents? And other people buried there?" Lily said, her blood pumping harder. Logan didn't look like this was news to him – although she knew his family was old blood, and his parents likely had told him everything from living there and watching it unfold firsthand.

Vos scratched the stubble popping out on his unshaven chin. "I mean, I haven't had a friendly chat with them in a few years, so I don't know exactly what they're thinking. If I had to guess, I'd say they're gathering as much data on potential enemies as possible. Your father's a pretty big threat to them, I'd say. Finding memories related to him would be a good way to probe for weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Or…they're looking for things related to Voldemort."

Logan scoffed. "Voldemort? Why him? He's been dead for a while."

"Because he knew maybe more about experimental and cutting-edge magic than any other known wizard or witch in history," Vos said. "I've said these people aren't out to start a war. They don't have normal motivations, and acquiring knowledge and insight is the only thing that seems to drive Genseric. Powerful people, especially dark wizards given the raw and lesser-understood nature of dark magic…tempting. I know for a fact my mentor's dug heavily into Gellert Grindelwald's memories. I'm almost certain he's taken his body and probably run all sorts of spells on his bones, because I've been inside Nurmengard. Sion and I went in 2007 to break into a chamber we discovered in the lowest depths. Voldemort's body was burned, though. Not so useful for someone who wants to pick his thoughts."

Vos pursed his lips. "Might even be interested in digging around Hogwarts if that's the case. No Voldemort, but from what I figure, that basilisk from the nineties is still down in the Chamber of Secrets. I don't know if any of his destroyed Horcruxes are around here, either. Those sorts of things would have all kinds of magical secrets."

Lily huffed in frustration. She didn't want to know about Gellert Grindelwald, and she didn't want to hear that Genseric viewed her grandparents' bodies like some sort of science experiment. That was the kind of answer that stonewalled her. She _wanted_ to know of an enemy with real motivations, one she could dig into and learn about and outwit and, at the core of it all, hate for what they had done and who they were. It was easy to hate someone with pure evil in their heart. It was harder to hate someone she couldn't even wrap her head around, except with the sort of unfulfilled rage that circled around in her head with no fuel to ignite.

"What's his goal behind all of this?" Lily said, her voice rising. "Why all this…all this? There has to be _some_ reason, not just doing it for fun."

Vos looked away. "Ultimately? I don't think my mentor ever liked being limited to being a human. I think he'd love to write himself into the laws of nature, become a god or a force or something that influences the world not by doing like Voldemort or Grindelwald, but just by _existing._ Nothing to do with prophecies or power or dominance. Not over people, at least."

"If you two really want to do something, work harder at Defense Against the Dark Arts," he added, closing his eyes and leaning back in his chair with a deep frown. "That won't stop Genseric or even Sion, but if you know how to defend yourself at the very least, you can avoid getting picked off by some of their…experiments."

He didn't have to tell her that. Lily could tolerate lagging behind the likes of Evie and Natalie in Charms and Transfiguration, but she knew she couldn't resort to dungbombs every time some ferocious beast or monster flashed its claws at her. Still she struggled: Going through the motions of learning spells felt like too little progress as she dwelt on Sion and Genseric picking at her grandparents' bones. The universe itself laughed at her every time she misspoke a spell or waved her wand wrong. _Powerless little girl at Hogwarts_. _What could you do to take revenge, flail at these people? Scream at them? Throw books at them? The next time you face Sion, you aren't going to have a nice little fight where good beats evil. You're going to get squashed like a bug. You are a bug to him._

She was a kettle backed up with steam, sitting on the burner for far too long as her insides thrashed about. Every now and then that steam boiled over – and her friends were noticing.

"You don't have to break my wrist!" Lily spat at Maisie Davies in Quidditch practice late on a Thursday afternoon, rubbing her arm from where a Bludger had hit at full speed. "It's practice!"

Vale Leng landed beside her and snapped, "Chill the hell out, Lily. You're a Chaser. You can deal with it. If you can't get hit once in practice, the Slytherins are going to make you cry. Suck it up."

"Well if Maisie's gonna be a prick and run me into the ground first when we're supposed to be working on flying – "

"Then you can go get fixed by Madame Longbottom. That takes all of a few minutes. I don't care. If you can't goddamn relax, then go get out of here right now and come back next practice when you're ready to drop the bratty act. Go have a tantrum in your bedroom if you want. Go ahead."

Wayne grabbed Lily by the arm and steered her away from the argument. Lily struggled, but he held on until he pulled her all the way to the edge of the practice field. He didn't look as happy or carefree as he usually did during Quidditch – or most other times – but strangely grave, with an expression so serious and alien-like for him that Lily felt scared by it.

He scowled and said, "What are you doing? Are you still freaking out about what happened at Godric's Hollow and that shadow thing you're chasing around the castle? 'Cuz you look like an idiot taking it out on us at Quidditch or in the halls."

"I'm not taking anything out!"

"Well, usually you don't go ballistic because Maisie did her job. She is a Beater, you know. Lily, you're usually the quiet one who tells us _not_ to do stupid things. Even Nat thinks you're getting all bent out of shape, and she's the crazy loud one. Go punch a pillow or do yoga or I don't know. Find a damn outlet to vent."

"Oh, that's a great help. Thanks."

"See? That's not you talking. Ask Yaro for whatever hooch he keeps swigging on the weekends. You're just pushing people away now."

That was the _last_ thing she wanted to do. Now more than ever she wanted to know her friends weren't going to up and abandon her, that she wasn't going to end up an outcast because she felt helpless and out of control, and that she wasn't going to get kicked off the Quidditch team or do something idiotic that threw her into deep trouble. She just couldn't help it.

Storms still swirled in her head the next day as she followed the other third-year Ravenclaws down onto the grounds for Defense Against the Dark Arts. Professor Corner was diving into more advanced defensive and offensive dueling spells that weren't as fit for a classroom, and despite the cold air, the class had a tinge of excitement hanging over it.

Natalie skipped along beside Lily, Logan, and Wayne down onto the grounds in the afternoon sun. "Carson Berry in Slytherin told me in Potions that we're blowing stuff up in this class," she said in a sing-song voice, as if making things explode was a cause for rejoicing. She swung her hand in the air with an invisible wand: "Like – whoosh! Boom! Like we'd burn down the classroom, so we're out here."

"Could you be more descriptive about the whoosh and boom parts?" Wayne asked. "Emphasis on the whoosh, or on the boom?"

"What? You're kind of weird, Wayne."

"I'm weird? We're peas in a pod, then."

Natalie giggled, "Like that! Who says that? Peas in a pod!" She laughed again, rubbing at her eyes. "I'm going to start saying that. 'Peas in a pod…'"

Professor Corner stood out on the shores of the Black Lake as they arrived for class. He'd arranged twenty rocky statues – more like humps of rock, Lily thought – out in the shallow water behind him, all spaced a good deal apart. Scorch marks and cracks lined most of them, as if they'd been burned and blasted and put back together recently.

"So we're out here in the interest of not blowing up half of the castle," he said as the Ravenclaws gathered around in a half-circle, "because today's spells is…messy. The _Daily Prophet_ 's had a lot of ugly news about things going on lately, so it's good to know a bit of magic that can keep a dark wizard or witch or creature away from you through both spectacle as well as force, a weapon and distraction at the same time. This is the Blasting Curse, and it's going to be one of the most dangerous things we learn this year, so before I get started, I want you all to double down on not messing around in this lesson. Got it?"

After a chorus of "yes" met his warning, he went on: "Right, then. Used this one now and then as an Auror. There's a couple different Blasting Curses, and people might say you're a bit young to learn this one, but I think third year's reasonable for this one, at least. Now watch: Jab your wand and aim it at your target, and shout – _Expulso!_ "

Professor Corner's wand jerked like a gun, a blue burst of light firing from the tip. Downrange, his spell hit one of the rocks straight in the center. A tiny point collapsed in the blank of an eye before blowing outward like a small bomb, scattering rock fragments everywhere as the stone exploded. Corner caught the blast before it could go too far, waving his wand in a ring and putting the rock back together again.

"Those are far out in the water so that nothing comes ricocheting back here," he said sternly. "And I mean don't point your wand anywhere except out at the lake when we're practicing this, alright? I'm going to be watching closely, but I'm putting a lot of trust in you guys."

With that they got going. Numerous cries of _Expulso!_ did little but produce mutters of disappointment and self-criticism amongst the Ravenclaws as the statues stood blemish-free for a solid ten minutes. Lily swore internally and jabbed her wand again: " _Expulso!_ "

Nothing. _Dammit, work!_

After fifteen minutes, Sara Garner flicked her wand and with a cry sent a blue burst of light out onto the lake. It did little more than knock a few loose pebbles off of her rock, but it was the only thing anyone had done so far. Trent Thorpe mirrored her success a minute later, and several minutes after that Evie fired off a much stronger burst, blasting off the top of her stone into the water.

"That's alright," Professor Corner said to her as he walked past. "Use less jab. You're swinging too hard."

Evie sulked as he walked past: Her father had heaped praise on Sara for much less.

" _Expulso!_ " Lily shouted again. Nothing. She was getting more and more frustrated by the minute, and next to her, Evie wasn't helping.

"You're jabbing too hard. Didn't you listen to my dad?" her classmate chided. "It's just a little jab, and then _Expulso!_ " This time Evie shot more of her stone off, a stronger blow that made her glow with pride. "See, like that. Just do it like I did."

Lily rolled her eyes. "I think I'd rather do it like however I do it."

"Well, you're going to keep failing then, and I can say I told you so."

"Just shut up and leave me alone."

Evie clucked at her. "You're real friendly. I'm trying to help. If you want to fail go for it. It's less competition for me. Seriously, I'd think you'd be _good_ at this class, since your dad's _the_ Harry Potter. Instead, you're…that's just really bad form. Your stance is all wrong, too."

Lily had enough with Evie's patronizing. She pocketed her wand, reared back, and let loose with one arm, slapping Evie across the face as hard as she could with the back of her hand. Her classmate reeled in shock for a moment, her eyes wide and dumbfounded, before color flushed her face and she aimed her wand straight at Lily's chest.

Professor Corner snatched her wand away before she could shout a spell. He grabbed his daughter by the hem of her shirt and snapped, "Is there something you didn't understand about pointing your wand at the lake and the lake only?"

"Dad, she – "

"We're talking later. Until then you do the lesson and that's it. Got it?"

Evie shrank away, looking embarrassed. Lily felt a moment of satisfaction – _serves you right!_ – before Professor Corner grabbed her arm and dragged her away from the class. She saw Natalie staring at her with a look of disbelief as her teacher herded her away and said in a dangerously low tone, "Now what on earth do you think you're doing?"

Lily stammered, "She said – about my dad, and then she said – "

"I don't care what she said," Professor Corner growled, his face no more than a few inches from hers. "She needs self-control, but apparently so do you. You don't smack people at the first disagreement."

"It's not the first!"

"Again, I don't care. You wanted to be treated like you're responsible, then act like it. Until then, detention all next week. Go get your things and head back to the castle. You're done for the day."

Lily gaped and protested, "I'm fine, I can do it."

"No, you can't. Not today. Get your things."

She stood her ground for a moment as if she'd protest again, but eventually she lowered her face and stormed over to get her book bag. The rest of the class gave her space, and Lily could feel every eye out on the grounds watching her. It was humiliating. Evie glowered at her like she was a demon as she shouldered her bag and walked away with her head down, her jaw clenched, her arms straight by her sides and her hands balled into fists. Tears clawed to be free from her eyes.

When she crossed over one of the rolling hills of the grounds and lost sight of her class, Lily changed course. She walked away from the castle, walking and walking until she made it to Hagrid's cabbage patch. Not a sound came from his hut, and disappointed that she had no one to cheer her up, she set down her bag on the ground, curled her knees up to her chest, and hunched over between two exceptionally large cabbages that shielded her from view. She couldn't stop the tears now. Feeling embarrassed, ashamed, and furious at herself, Lily pressed her forehead to one knee and cried.

Hagrid's gluttonous pot-bellied pig Mouse trotted out to see the commotion. "Leave me alone," Lily mumbled, wiping away snot from her nose. Mouse didn't comply. Instead he walked up to her and laid down by her side, sniffing at beetles that prowled the rolling dirt mounds beneath them.

Lily rubbed his back, smearing tears across her cheeks with her sleeve. "What's wrong with me?" she blubbered to Mouse. "You're just a pig, you don't understand. I'm an idiot. I'm a stupid girl who can't do anything right."

She leaned over and hugged the pig, laying her face on his dirty, furry back. _Why am I even trying to get involved in all these big situations? Sion, Godric's Hollow - I can't do anything about it. I can just sit here and get mad about it like the idiot I am. I can't even handle Evie. What a joke. Something bad is going to happen and I'm going to mess it up all over again, just like I did first year._


	41. Hogsmeade

_**Thanks to emanreus, MakingMarauderMischief, and mywildcharmsforyou for the reviews! Good thoughts all around on Lily's frustrations – the downside of such knowledge is the lack of control over large, impactful situations like this, and Lily's experiencing this sort of helplessness all over after getting hit so hard in her first year. As for Genseric's ultimate goal (or what he wants with James and Lily's bodies): We're not going to know everything (or even much) about what he (and his "team") wants until we close in on the end of the series, so I'm happy everyone's questioning what the motive there is. Don't worry about romance, emanreus: That's another slow trickle I'm trying to draw out, and Scorpius Malfoy has…much more of a destiny than only being a romantic interest. He has a name to redeem, after all.**_

 _ **Breaking my daily update streak for this chapter, but here we go with the Headmaster's concerns (and a little of the explanation of why Jeffrey Drake is still Minister despite ticking off Hermione, Harry, and the associated), Lily and the gang trekking to Hogsmeade, and a run-in with quarrelsome visitors. Warning note before the chapter; this gets violent and gruesome.**_

* * *

"The way I hear, you've been showing poor self-control the last few weeks. A few staff have made mention of your behavior."

Lily avoided Headmaster Maribor's eyes as he spoke. She sat in her chair in his office, her hands folded in her lap, staring down at the base of his desk. She'd only been in this office once, and that had been when she'd chased the phantasm right out of time itself. Compared to that mess, Maribor's office was downright empty. Lily recognized Dumbledore's portraits amongst the many lining the office's walls, but only the school's seal and a few memorabilia completed the room's decorations. Instead, Maribor kept pieces of parchment stacked in neat mounds, spare wands and quills, and a peculiar, toasted-shaped black rock that spat out parchment lined with what looked like breaking news every few minutes. The room smelled slightly salty, as if they weren't in the middle of a castle in the Scottish Highlands but overlooking the ocean from a high cliff.

Maribor picked up the latest brief as he paced the back of the room, his eyes glancing over the writing before tossing it onto his parchment stack so neatly that it landed perfectly in line with the rest of the papers. "That's disappointing. Not the Lily Potter I thought you were."

Again Lily didn't answer. Did the Headmaster often "invite" students to his office just to criticize them for a detention here and there? She'd never heard of that from her friends and family, so maybe he just wanted to pile on with everyone else. Her performance in class had slipped, and she was still fighting the demons laughing in her head. Add on to Ravenclaw's narrow defeat to Slytherin in Quidditch the prior weekend and Lily's stress threatened to bury her before she had the chance to blow off Saturday in the next planned visit to Hogsmeade.

The Headmaster picked up another scrap of parchment his toaster coughed up. This one he frowned out, balling it up in his fist and pitching it over his shoulder into a dull gray cylinder in the corner. It burst into flames in a bright yellow flash as it landed inside the cylinder, a soft _whoomp_ accompanying the flame.

"That Ministry man's been talking to you. Stennis," Maribor said, his voice losing its criticizing tone and turning bitter. Lily nodded. "Why?" Maribor asked, still looking at his parchment pile.

Lily fidgeted, twisting her answer in her mouth before settling on telling the truth. "My aunt Hermione wanted me to get to know him."

"Yeah? And what have you learned?"

"I…" _what am I supposed to say?_ "…he's kind of suspicious about some of the professors."

"Doesn't like my decisions," Maribor said without looking her way, crumpling another paper in his hand and tossing it into his bin. _Whoomp!_

"He's nitpicky about money."

"Stingy git, yes." _Whoomp!_

"And he doesn't like my aunt either. He said she's disruptive."

"Doesn't like Ministry criticism," he finished. _Whoomp!_ Maribor looked up with a bemused expression as he tossed another paper over his shoulder. "Your aunt's got all the information she needs to have him over for supper."

Lily returned to examining her lap. _Well, what am I supposed to ask the man, "Hello, tell me all your secrets?"_ As happy as she was to have Hermione ask her for help, she wanted to know why her aunt's distrust ran so deep. Was it just the unexpected election result last summer, or whatever had happened when Harry had brought Lily in to work – something that Lily herself had only a hazy recollection about? Everyone speaking out against each other seemed like a misuse of time and resources when Sion had struck at Godric's Hollow.

Maribor took a seat across from Lily and crossed his arms. Gray hair popped up on his head more and more with each passing day, and while he still wasn't old by wizarding standards – only in his fifties – the stress of the job and of the times was taking its toll on his face, with lines on his forehead and under his eyes growing. "Don't underestimate that man," he said of Declan Stennis. "He's a Ministry dog, but he's looking for weakness. Any accountant like that knows how to sniff them out. If you give him an inch too much in one of your little chats, he'll take it a mile and run straight to the _Prophet_. I don't suppose you'd like being used as an example to whip up the Board of Governors into a frenzy, would you? I doubt your aunt would be happy if your name got Yaro or Vos kicked out by the court of public opinion, either."

"I don't get why Stennis or the Minister care about Professor Yaro. Or Vos," murmured Lily, still not meeting his gaze.

"It's not _Declan Stennis_ or _Minister Jeffrey_ _Drake_ who gives the marching orders," Maribor spat. "They're both just puppets. Easily replaceable and easily paid off. Their little masters at Gringotts, goblin and wizard alike, give the commands. It's more cost-effective to pack the Ministry and Hogwarts with known commodities. Yaro and Vos are outsiders and don't fit the bill."

Lily picked at a flap of skin on her finger. "I mean, they can't kick professors out of Hogwarts unless you let them, right?"

"Also can't kick me out unless the school Governors say so. But the Governors have money, Gringotts has money, and I'll let you do the math when both camps decide that the staff here isn't fueling their profit train."

"But you fought Voldemort and the Death Eaters, sir. That counts for something."

Maribor snorted. "No it doesn't. That was twenty-odd years ago. It counts for nothing when the money is counted quarterly."

 _I bet you and Hermione would get along splendidly_ , thought Lily _. Actually, maybe Alanis Fell might like you more._

"Enough about my job," Maribor said, getting up from his desk. "I'm telling you to be careful around Stennis. It's bad enough letting him in all the time. I don't need him using my students for the Ministry's ends, and I'd rather you step carefully around him, even if your aunt wants you to butter him up. Now get out. Go enjoy Hogsmeade Saturday."

A stone gray sky dumped snow as Lily, her friends, and the rest of Hogwarts's students in the third year or higher headed out of the castle and down to Hogsmeade that Saturday morning. The snow fell fast and thick in white sheets, so heavy that Lily's boots sank into the snow past her ankles as she shuffled down the walk and past the castle gates. She clung to her yellow winter coat for warmth, rubbing her gloved hands together and pulling her knit cap lower over her ears to ward out the chill.

"Coldest damn day of the year and we come out here," Logan grumbled as he walked with Lily, Natalie, and Wayne. "Great Saturday."

Natalie stuck out her tongue at him. "You're a huge wussy. 'Oh, it's _sooo_ cold.' You just want to stay in and never see anything?"

"I don't get how your mum is a witch and yet this is only your second time visiting the town," Wayne said to her. "And the first time was the last weekend we did this. I mean, can't you come here any time you want? Me, whole family's Muggles and don't even know about Hogsmeade…"

"You don't just come here _any time you want_."

"I can," said Logan, shrugging. "Wager Lily can, too."

Rolling her eyes, Natalie grabbed Lily's hand and said, "Fine. The boys are babies, Lily, let's go have fun without them."

"Where are we going, Nat?" Lily asked.

"Who cares? Somewhere!"

Natalie half-dragged Lily away from them and down the walk at a run – or as close to it as they could muster in the deep snow drifts. Both girls tripped in the snow and sent a cloud of the stuff all around them, laughing and shivering in the frigid air as Hogsmeade unfolded around them. Whipped icing covered the roofs of the gingerbread houses and shops, the meandering streets and alleys nothing but white veins that criss-crossed the burgeoning town. Everywhere they looked people strolled about, students, Hogwarts staff, locals, seemingly the whole of wizarding Britain all out shopping, talking, and reveling in the festive air. It was as if everyone here had forgotten for a day that Christmas had come and went a month and a half ago, and the holidays had returned for one lively snow day.

"You really come here whenever you want?" Natalie sighed, looking around the town with misty eyes.

Lily shook her head. "I've been here a couple times…well, more than a couple. I don't just up and come every weekend during the summer or anything."

"You guys have such cool families," said Natalie, clutching Lily's arm for warmth as they walked down the main drag of the town. "Your mum and dad…well, yeah. Then Logan's mum is on the Wizengamot and his dad's on the school Board. Wish my family was like that."

"Logan's dad is on the Board of Governors?" Lily asked, stopping in her tracks.

Natalie nodded. "Yeah. He told me that one time. He said his dad was all quiet though, so maybe he can't just get Professor Piper fired for getting mad at us in Potions."

Lily wasn't thinking about Potions, however. She had a queasy sense in her stomach, thinking, _Is Logan's dad trying to get Yaro and Vos fired, too?_ Suddenly she felt all mixed up, as if their friendship had been politicized by what she knew – even if Logan had never said a bad word about either professor.

 _Ugh._ Shaking off the thought, she said, "I've got cooler family than my parents. Come on. Let's go to my uncle's shop."

Weasley's Wizard Wheezes was an explosive blast of color and sound amidst the wintry white blanket that had covered Hogsmeade. Purple and orange streamers shot out of the top of the three-story store, and students swarmed every inch of the interior. Products of all shapes and sizes lined the walls, from wand sparklers that shot out flaming green sparrows to purple hats that transfigured into white mice right before one's eyes.

No sooner had Lily and Natalie stepped in then a loud voice from the second floor shouted, "Whoa, we've got a strict limit on customers – no crazies entering the shop. Rose – oh, wait a minute."

Ron Weasley jumped down the stairs three at a time, dusting off his trousers and grabbing Lily in a bear hug before she could greet him properly. "Took you for Rose for a minute," he said. "You got all Ginny's genes."

"I think Rose is a bit taller," said Lily, blushing as she tried to separate and get in a breath.

"Nah. You see yourself recently?" asked Ron. "Well, then. You visit but my daughter's too busy in the Three Broomsticks or wherever she is. Maybe I'll get your dad to trade kids. Tell you what: George would kill me for doing it, but…go grab something for free. On the house. I'll charge your dad a firewhisky sometime later."

Lily laughed. "Really? You don't have to do that. Dad gave me money for the term."

"Well, so he's paying me either way. Go on. Hogwarts needs someone doing stupid things."

While Lily didn't want to take advantage of Ron's hospitality, she had an idea. Grabbing Natalie and pulling her over, she said, "Uncle, this is my best friend Natalie."

Natalie went extremely red and uttered a quiet "Hi," her loud persona slipping away all at once.

"I thought of a great business idea," Lily went on. "Last time we were here, we were too busy at Honeydukes to come here, so it's Nat's first time in the Hogsmeade branch. To encourage business, you should give her a discount on one thing. Like a one hundred percent discount."

Ron looked amused. "So how's the business work in that?"

" _Well,_ it's winning customer appreciation! Natalie has a great time here and spreads word of mouth, encouraging other people to come for the great service! Plus you win her loyalty, so she becomes a repeat customer in the future. That boosts product turnover and is great marketing and PR."

"You really don't have to – " Natalie began.

Ron cut her off with a gut-rumbling laugh. "You want a job here? Alright, as long as you don't tell George, you win. And if you see Rose, go yell at her and tell her to come stop by."

The girls left the store ten minutes later, Lily clutching a _Dragon Fire_ firework, Natalie clinging to a box of Chameleon Clusters (Camouflage with one crunch!) Snow was coming down even harder now, with the flakes turning Lily's hair into a red-and-white checkerboard. They headed off towards the Three Broomsticks for a warm-up and butterbeer, but Lily stopped just outside the door when she spotted two people deep in conversation beneath a nearby shopfront.

"Go get us seats," said Lily. "I need to see something for a sec."

Natalie shrugged and went in. Across the street, Professor Vos looked annoyed, cornered in front of Ceridwen's Cauldrons by a black-haired witch bundled from head to toe in a heavy cloak. Lily idled nearby, hiding her face, straining to listen in.

" – nothing better to do than come bug me in Hogsmeade? It's my fookin' day off," Vos was in the middle of saying, his voice gravelly and grating. "Is that why you're wearing all that get-up? So none of your nutty supporters try and get a rally going?"

"Or because it's below freezing," the witch said. Lily recognized Alanis Fell's voice at once, and when she peeked up to see, she caught a glimpse of the woman's sharp blue-violet eyes. "Just knew you'd be out today. You spend all your time hiding in the castle. I don't even know what you do during the summer."

Vos scoffed. "For good reason. Why do you keep trying to bother me?"

"Honestly, Jurre, how long do you think you're going to keep that job? Both with what you're keeping under the lake and with the Ministry trying to kick out anyone who's not their favorite? You can stay under that cloud, or you can leave on good terms and come be appreciated. Come on, you're not _that_ interested in damn astronomy."

"Well I sure don't know about my job security, but I do know that you're the one who was so desperate to get rid of me a couple years ago. Now I'm interesting again because Sion's rampaging around and hit Godric's Hollow? Ya, not interested in being used."

"Alright, I made a mistake. We were running stupid from – "

Lily felt a sneeze coming on. She tried to suppress it by holding her fingers up to her nose, then by pressing her tongue to the top of her mouth, but nothing work. With a loud _Choo!_ she sneezed, drawing both Vos and Alanis's looks.

Alanis smiled, her eyes sly. "Lily," she exclaimed, "Jurre's favorite student. Come over here and join us. Or better, we can all go into the pub there and get warm."

"Oh, no," Vos cut her off. "You're not involving her. Lily, scram. Alanis is using you to get to me."

"Well, that's nice of you, Jurre. Why don't you let her make up her own mind?"

 _Yes, let's._ Lily opened her mouth to say something, but Vos interrupted her. "Honest to God. Lily, we'll talk later. Please, let me have this conversation privately for now."

Lily wanted to know more and Alanis was urging her on, but a pleading look in Vos's eyes warded her off. Something told her it wasn't just a conversation about Sion they were having, but something more…intimate. She headed off back down the street towards the Three Broomsticks, throwing another look over her shoulder at the two of them. The way Alanis stood so close to Vos made her wonder just how much the two disliked each other, or if they even did at all anymore. Vos had always spoken about her with the bitter iciness of a grudge, but time had a way of healing old wounds.

Before she got to the Three Broomsticks, Lily spotted Rose and Al headed down the street in the opposite direction. Hurrying over, Lily cried, "Rose!" Her cousin looked up, her nose almost as red as her hair. "Your dad's looking for you," Lily added, rubbing her hands for warmth as she trotted up. "Hi, Al."

Rose huffed. "What's he want? I saw him every day during break."

"He told me to tell you to visit. I dunno."

Sighing, Rose tromped away towards Weasley's Wizard Wheezes without a word. Al frowned. "Great. We were going to Tomes and Scrolls, but guess I'll just go on my own. Unless you want to come."

"The bookstore?" Lily asked. "I, um…I left Natalie back in the Three Broomsticks a while ago, actually. She's probably mad at me by now."

"Alright. Go have fun, sis."

"Al, come with us. You can warm up before Rose gets back. We have all day. You can go look at books later. You can come back me up and tell Nat she's dumb for thinking James is all handsome."

He laughed. "That's a bit of a daunting task. Alright, fine. Just for a bit. Two of my other friends went to the Hog's Head, so I'm kind of in a holding pattern here."

When Lily turned to lead the way, she heard the unmistakable _pop!_ of someone Apparating in down in the adjacent alley. She glanced down her right to take a look, but only saw a cloaked figure dressed in a long robe that covered him or her from head to toe. A long, wide hood concealed their face, and the figure had something on their back – long, spindly, almost like a staff. Lily held Al up as the figure pulled off the hood, revealing a crop of short silver hair and stark pale skin just a shade darker than the falling snow.

Lily's stomach lurched. _Just a coincidence. Just a likeness_. "Let's, um, let's go," she said to her brother, taking one step and looking down the alley again.

"What's wrong?" asked Al, noticing her discomfort.

She looked down the alley again. The figure shook off his robe. He was thin, gaunt, lanky, and athletic, with pronounced facial bones. The man pulled his staff off his back, looked up, and Lily knew she'd felt off for a reason.

"Go," she breathed, "now."

The man down the alley pumped his staff once, clutching it like a quarterstaff as blue lightning shot out from both ends. Lily shoved Al away as a bolt of electricity jumped through the air behind them. The shockwave sent both Potter siblings crashing into the snow. Lily winced, clutching her ears as they throbbed with pain. Behind her, the lightning bolt hung in the air, its tip blasting open an inky black oval where previously there had been only falling snow. Lily knew what it was. She'd seen it before. _A portal_.

Screams and shouts of shock popped up down the street as Sion trotted out from the alley, staff in hand, a smile on his face.

Something lurched out of the portal. Lily thought it was a man at first, but she knew better when it fully emerged. She even knew who it was – or who it had once been. She'd seen his face in the Auror's office, the most wanted dark wizard in Britain.

"Dolohov," Lily breathed, paralyzed in shock, numbed to the cold.

"Sis, come on," Al said, his voice breaking. His eyes were wide in shock and panic, still not comprehending what he was seeing unfold in front of him. "Come on, back to the castle. Come on!"

 _This is how Godric's Hollow must have started_.

Antonin Dolohov was no longer the Dolohov Lily had seen on the wanted poster. He was desiccated, twisted, warped, little more than a husk of the man who had once been one of the most feared Death Eaters in Voldemort's army. Flesh hung off of him in jagged, ripped strips, and his limbs were twisted, one arm longer than the other, one leg turned around entirely backwards so that the bony, jutting knee faced the wrong way. His face was contorted, his eyes gaping, his mouth ajar, his hair patchy and falling out, and his bones sticking out of the skin in places. Worst of all were Dolohov's hands. Rather than clutch a wand, someone had merged each of the former Death Eater's hands with a wand. He now carried two weapons – growing straight out of his skin and flesh.

More screams. Dolohov waved one of his hands in the air and his wand fired, shooting a blue spell that hit the nearest roof and exploded. Wood and debris blasted out onto the street and snow as residents and visitors alike scattered in all directions.

Lily ran. She grabbed Al's hand and bolted down the street as Dolohov fired another curse off. The windows of the greengrocer down the road exploded outward, broken glass spraying across two Hogwarts girls taking cover from the unexpected attack.

Another bolt of lightning zipped down the road. Another portal opened up, cutting off High Street in both directions. Something else leapt out of this opening, and not a human this time. It was a war hound, aggressive, wolf-like, with hellish yellow eyes, dagger teeth, and black fur interspersed with armor-like rocky plates from neck to tail. A wizard on the street dashed behind cover and slashed his wand at the hound, firing off a red stunner that merely bounced off one of the armor plates and ricocheted off into the sky.

"This way!" Lily shouted to Al as students and residents dashed away from the rapidly worsening combat zone. She hurried off towards an alley just as a witch hiding behind a house wall aimed a curse at Dolohov. It hit him square in the chest, ripping a tiny hole in his loose skin as he turned and slashed one of his wands, his head lolling and his eyes wobbling as he fought multiple defenders at once. The witch ran out of the way as Dolohov's curse splintered part of the wall, the force knocking Lily back into Al.

Professor Yaro dashed around from a nearby corner, spotting Lily and Al and hurrying towards them to shepherd them to safety. Lily saw the danger too late: Another one of the hounds had jumped out of the second portal and lunged, catching Yaro around the waist with its jaws and slamming into the ground. He rolled away as it swiped with one clawed mitt as a blue spell caught the hound right in the belly. The curse blasted it into the wall where it struggled to its feet, shaking off the hit and rebounding on the new threat.

Alanis stepped out from the overhang in front of the Three Broomsticks, her wand at the ready, her hair billowing behind her in the snow and wind. She swiped her wand and fired another blast at the hound, propelling it through the wall in a crunch of bone and wood. As she went for a follow-up, a lance of lightning caught her off-guard. She threw up a shield just in time, catching the blast with a grimace and stepping back to accept the force of the hit.

Sion advanced, his staff crackling with electricity. "What a great day for a reunion!" he shouted, laughing as he closed in. "Cold as ass and so scenic! Not here for you Alanis, but if you want to come along…" She didn't let him finish. Instead she lifted her wand and propelled a piece of debris like a missile. Sion dodged like a cat, bounding and landing on all fours as the debris exploded into splinters behind him. "No wonder Jurre left you, woman," he taunted. "Is that how you greet someone?"

Vos grabbed Lily and Al, forcing them towards the door of the Three Broomsticks. "Get inside, you two," he said, slashing his wand at Dolohov as the former Death Eater advanced up the street. His spell missed by an inch, an orange bolt flying over Dolohov's head and shooting out into the sky.

Lily hurried in. Forty or so other students crowded around inside the tavern, their eyes all wide and full of fear, many of them young like her. No one said a word, and the only sounds came from the crackling of the fire and the chaos unfolding outside. Professor Teague stood in front of the students, her face tight and stern. Ron crouched by the door, his wand out as he peeked over the windowsill, ready to fight. Besides them, the only other adults in the room were Rosmerta behind the bar, the old woman ready for a fight despite her age, and a tall, lean man in a dark cloak Lily didn't recognize.

"Lily!" Natalie rushed up, grabbing her friend in a hug and pulling her towards the fire. "What's going on? What happened?"

She shook her head. Alanis ducked inside the door as a bolt of lightning zipped by her head, hitting the porch and lighting it on fire.

"It's Dolohov, couple dozen of those damn wargs, and – " said Alanis, peeking her head back out the door. She ducked again as a hail of dagger-like icicles slammed into the bar's door, several hitting with so much force that they blew straight through the wood and out into the adjacent alley. "- and Sion brought a draug for good measure. If you're going to raid Hogsmeade, might as well go with overkill."

"Well, forget this," Ron said, leaning against the cracking door frame. "Someone get the kids out of here and the rest of us can go fight off these goons."

Vos nodded, his face tight. He pointed at Professor Teague and said, "Get this lot back to Hogwarts, then get John down here to help us fight this damn thing. As many of the rest of the staff too to sweep for any students who are stranded out in the town."

Teague kicked out the back door, less the kind and calm woman from Charms and more of a fighter preparing to wade into battle. "I need you all to keep them away, then. I can't take out more than a couple if I'm taking the kids up."

"We can fight," Al spoke up.

"No, you won't," Ron cut him off.

Alanis swore. "Might not have a choice if that draug's wandering about. Jurre, your colleague's getting manhandled out there. We gotta go now."

"I'm Ministry," the tall man Lily didn't know said. "I'm heading in and grabbing as many Aurors as I can get. Be back soon.'

He Apparated away as soon as he said that. Behind the counter, Rosmerta steeled herself and waved away Ron's suggestion that she escape. "I'm old anyway, sweetie. Let's get 'em."

"All you guys, back door, now," Teague said, shoving open the back door all the way and moving the first of the students out.

Lily shot a look back as Vos bounded out the front door, somersaulting away from a green curse, snatching up one of the icicles impaled in the door, and throwing it like a knife. It buried in the neck of one of the hounds, wargs, Alanis had called them. The beast howled and yipped, skipping away from the action.

Natalie ducked out the back door, Lily right on her heels. She saw Rose and Al a few meters ahead, their heads down as they hurried down the back alley. Hogwarts castle loomed high ahead, still far off in the distance, far too far away to make it back under its magical defenses in any hurry. Hogsmeade residents and students fled in the far distance, little black ants dashing away against the snow.

Professor Teague was in the lead, guiding the students along, when Lily found out what Sion's draug was.

A hulking brute loomed up from behind a three-story shop on High Street. It was vaguely human, swollen and powerful, its skin blackened and charred, covered in graying, bony armor like plate mail from its legs all the way up to a cranial shell that encased its head in a sickly bony dome like some horrifyingly mutated troll. It toted a giant iron mace covered in metal spikes, and when it marched forward, its footfall was heavy and pounding like an elephant's. It shouted something in a language Lily couldn't understand, its voice like the thumping of a bass drum. The worst part was the smell: It reeked of decay and rot, the frigid conditions doing nothing to mask the stench.

It carried a screaming man in one hand, seemingly oblivious to his writhing. Lily blanched. _Yaro_.

Professor Teague snarled and swung her wand in a circle. A cluster of rocks and debris rose from the ground, forming into an icy meteor that she hurled at the draug. It bellowed and tossed aside Yaro with bored ease, swinging its mace at the rock and blasting it into pebbles. With another swipe, the draug aimed its mace at Teague and a dozen icy knifes appeared out of thin air. They smashed into her last-second shield charm, disintegrating into a fine mist.

 _Shite, that thing's got magic too_ , Lily thought.

The draug was angry. It bellowed and charged, each footstep a small earthquake, and the escaping students scattered as Teague lured the behemoth down the street, firing curses behind her as she went.

"Up and back to the street!" Lily shouted to Natalie, clutching her friend's hand as they went. A piece of rubble had caught her shoulder, and she was dully aware of blood trickling out. Adrenaline pumped through her to the extent that pain was a non-entity. Everything was a rush, a push to find some way back to Hogwarts without being intercepted by Sion's raiding party.

Screams drew Lily's attention. She saw two wargs behind her, one with a shrieking middle-aged woman she didn't know caught in its jaws, the other dragging an unconscious Yaro towards the nearest portal.

"No!" Lily shouted. She shook off Natalie as he friend screamed for her, rushing forward with her wand out. " _Incendio! Stupefy!_ "

Her spells reflected off the warg's armor. The hound pawed the snow, backing into the portal with Yaro still locked in its jaws. Lily was helpless to watch as it disappeared, the other warg right behind it with the shrieking woman in tow.

Natalie grabbed Lily and pulled her back. "Lily, please!" she shouted. "We're gonna get killed here!"

Lily felt the rush to fight. Off down the street Rosmerta warded off a warg, knocking it back before hitting in its exposed stomach with a curse that threw it into a rock with a sickening crash. Alanis and Vos held their ground against Sion, driving their former colleague back towards his first portal with attack after attack. Vos summoned a cloud of smoke, turning it into an arrow that he launched at Sion. Blinded, Sion whipped away the cloud just in time to leap away as Alanis launched a chunk of chimney at him, her wand like a magical trebuchet as she hurled rubble across the street and forced him further and further away.

Sion knocked away a final curse, whistled loudly, and hurtled into his first portal just as Alanis shot a cloud of fire at him. The draug broke off its pursuit of Professor Teague, lumbering back into the street, catching Vos's curse with his mace, and ducking into the same portal. A warg tried to make the same escape before Rosmerta blinded it with a flash of light, giving Alanis time to skewer it with a long sliver of wood.

"Sis!" Al shouted as Natalie and Lily rushed away. Rose was at his side, breathing hard. "Come on!"

Sion, his _things_ , they were gone. Yaro, too. That only left –

Lily'd almost forgotten about Dolohov. The former Death Eater loomed large in front of her, Natalie, Al, and Rose, shambling towards them on his twisted legs. He raised both his wand-hands with a clear shot as Al and Lily raised their wands to block.

"No you don't, you son of a whore!"

Ron sprinted forward, firing spells. Dolohov took two to the face, one caving in his left eye, the other taking a giant chunk out of his right side. He didn't show any effects and no blood ran from the wound; instead, he turned on his new attacker, whipping his wands and launching a hail of purple flames that Ron just narrowly held off.

"Dad!" cried Rose. " _Stupefy!_ "

Her stunner only irritated Dolohov, but it was enough to draw the abomination's attention.

" _Incendio!_ " shouted Natalie. Her flame licked at the former Death Eater, lighting his loose flaps of skin on fire as he shot a curse at her.

" _Protego!_ " Al stepped in, blocking the spell before it could hit. Lily stepped around him, aiming her wand as Ron took Dolohov's attention again.

" _Expulso!_ "

 _Bam!_ Lily's Blasting Curse drilled Dolohov square in the chest. Lily didn't know what she'd tried to do – take him down, stop him – but the effect was far more than she'd intended. The curse blew Dolohov apart, blasting a hole in his torso beside Ron's earlier hit and cleaving him in two. Lily stepped back in horror at what she'd inflicted as Ron fired a last shot of red light, stopping Dolohov's twitching and leaving the twisted body in pieces on the snow.

Lily keeled over on the snow, clutching her knees with both hands, her lungs wheezing. She felt her stomach give out at last, and before she could help herself she retched all over the snow. It had all happened so fast: One minute she'd been telling Rose to go seen Ron, and the next Sion had appeared out of thin air. He'd trucked in his raiding party in less than a minute, and in no time at all he'd retreated with kidnapped victims in tow.

 _Professor Yaro included. Oh God_.

She retched again, glancing up at the castle as Natalie put a hand on her back to steady her. _They couldn't get to Hogwarts, but Hogsmeade…no defenses at all_.

Ron breathed heavily beside them. "You lot get up to the castle, now," he said. "Get away from this mess."


	42. After the Snow

_**Thanks for the great reviews, MMM/emanreus/don' . ' ! Good catch on the modern events note, emanreus – not entirely based on what just happened recently, but I'm aiming for a more modern villain with a more modern political situation than Voldemort/Fudge's Ministry. MMM – fair point about trading victories and defeats amongst the parties (and the overwhelming gray-black morality I've had so far); that's on me for trying to make this the "Empire Strikes Back" of the series, with the bad guys on the offensive and the "good" guys struggling with a lack of ammunition (information in this case – Genseric and Sion are total unknowns, even wielding some unknown magic, compared to the likes of Voldemort/Bellatrix/the other Death Eaters.) That's also a casualty of writing from Lily's perspective – she can't see a lot of the background pieces, what Hermione's doing and what Harry's doing in particular. She can only hear snippets (like the enormous**_ **Prophet** _**article I stick in this chapter.) Suffice to say, as far as good guys – they're there, but still coming together against an enemy that has every advantage right now. There's this one guy whose name starts with H who might be able to handle his own against the dark forces, however ;)**_

 _ **As for the hounds – they're wargs. Cue LOTR fans saying, "Not very original, ML!" Bacchus will be back, but not yet – we will see him once more in this book, though. His backstory (way down the line; don't want to rush that gem) will make his lengthy absences clear eventually.**_

 _ **Rebound chapter here, a breather in the aftermath of the Hogsmeade clash as Harry and Ginny console Lily, the Ministry seizes opportunity, and our protagonist learns how to heal…**_

* * *

"I want your Aurors on the grounds at all times. Four minimum, one at the gates, one patrolling the forest, two rotating as need be. Nothing gets through those defenses if I have a say in it."

Lily lay in the hospital wing, her shoulder throbbing now as Madam Longbottom waved her wand across the wound. Ginny sat on the bed's other side, holding Lily's hand. Students filled the ward and parents trickled in from across Britain, leaving work and home behind to see to their children after the Hogsmeade ambush had torn High Street to pieces and left rubble strewn across town. Outside in the aisle between beds, Harry and the Headmaster talked in serious, grave tones.

"Not four, six," said Harry. "I'll spare Dean, Proudfoot, and four others, and I'll come in personally on a weekly basis. Six more in Hogsmeade, and I'll need the rest of my staff to make rounds around the other major towns across the country. I just don't have enough men and women to keep an eye on everywhere at once, and when this dark wizard can show up anytime, anywhere with a whole zoo of monsters – "

Maribor stiffened. "Give me what you can spare. And if that Minister or any of his group give you trouble, I'll pay for the expense out of my own damn pocket. If they come here, I will make damn sure they leave in pieces."

 _Pieces_. _I turned a man into pieces._ Lily's mind turned in on itself and she gave a little jump, earning a reprieve from Madam Longbottom: "I'm almost done. Last little bit and it's all healed."

 _It wasn't a man. Dolohov wasn't a man, he was less than a man. More like a half-dead man,_ Lily told herself. _You remember what Vos said. He was trapped in something less than life._

 _You bisected him!_

 _I didn't mean to! And he was attacking Uncle Ron, and Nat and Rose and Al!_

 _You divided him in two! If that had been an average witch or wizard, you'd be sitting in a cell in Azkaban right now! Hell, at any second people might take you away and throw you in there!_

 _Dammit, he was a former Death Eater! He blew apart Hogsmeade's main drag! Why do I have to justify this?!_

Harry pushed open the curtains around Lily's bed. He looked tired, older than his years, lines creasing his face and the corners of his eyes. He tried to put on a gentle smile for Lily's sake, but all it did was make him look even more worn-down in her eyes.

"You all done, Hannah? Can my family have time?" he asked.

Healer Longbottom waved her wand across Lily's gash one more time. "She should stay here overnight to make sure there isn't lasting damage, but it's probably just a flesh wound. Go ahead."

She let the curtains close behind her, swathing the three of them in privacy. Harry exhaled and slumped into a chair next to Ginny, wrapping an arm around her and laying a hand on Lily's knee.

"Is everyone alright?" Ginny asked. "All the kids?"

Harry nodded, but his expression was glum. "Nothing more than minor injuries, broken bones at worst, for any of the students. Everything in Hogsmeade can be repaired. By all accounts people fought them off, no more than a few casualties in the village, and the responders killed twenty or more of those wargs. But then…one teacher taken along with five other Hogsmeade residents. All of them well-connected – Hogwarts, Wizengamot, one was a magihistorian. I'm guessing they got what they came for, losses be damned. We took out a bunch of them in Godric's Hollow, too, and it didn't stop them from showing up again."

Lily turned over, facing away from her parents and staring at the curtains. What were wargs, even Dolohov, to Sion and Genseric? A few insignificant losses? They hadn't inflicted casualties besides the people they kidnapped, but it was the psychological damage that was so withering. Hogwarts was in near-lockdown and she could only imagine the blaring, panic-laden headlines in the _Prophet_ tomorrow. Fifteen minutes of battle had turned Hogsmeade into a disaster zone. When wizarding Britain had no idea how to find and strike back against Genseric they were left to stay on the defensive, always reacting and always a step behind. So long as that was the case, this kind of thing wouldn't stop. It would only grow worse.

"Sweetie," soothed Ginny, wrapping her hands around Lily's, "is your shoulder still hurting? I can go get Hannah." She shook her head. "Your brothers are okay. They're safe. Your friends too, your classmates – all the other kids are fine, and everyone came back, okay? You're safe, Lily. Dad and I aren't going to let anything get to you. We'll fight all of them off before that happens."

"Not everyone. Not Professor Yaro," Lily murmured. "I saw them take him. Those things took him."

Ginny shot Harry a look. "Lily, listen," said Harry, leaning in. "We'll get back the people who are gone. I've sent out Aurors already on their trail. We're not going to stop until this whole thing blows over."

"I just watched them take him," Lily said, turning and plunging her face into her pillow. "And then I did…I did…"

"You did brilliant. Ron said you, Al, Rose, and your friend probably saved him," said Ginny.

Harry rubbed her arm. "Don't beat yourself up for that, Lily. You did what you had to in a situation way over your head. Nothing bad's going to happen to you. Trust me. Dolohov's not worth beating yourself up over, anyway. That man made Teddy Lupin grow up without his dad. I'm not sorry to see him go."

Lily didn't want to listen. She didn't want to hear that she'd done something good, that her spur-of-the-moment spell had even avenged Teddy's father and kept that beastly Dolohov abomination from hurting Ron. Some part of her wanted to be a victim, wanted her father and mother to chastise her and tell her she was as hideous and monstrous as she felt. _Hell, I_ _probably did Dolohov a favor by freeing him from that body Sion and Genseric had twisted him into._

"I could've done something to help."

"You did. And you still can," said Harry. "The moment these attackers beat us is when we can't do anything but think about them. They win if we obsess about danger and safety all the time until we choke on it all. So you can fight them right here, Lily. When you get out, go make your brothers laugh. Go cheer up your friends and make them smile. Sing a song and learn in class and play Quidditch. When you can't do that anymore…that's when all these dark things win. You're still thirteen. You don't have to grow up every day."

Lily wiped at a tear with her pillowcase and nodded. He made it sound so easy.

Hannah popped back in. "She should get some rest," she said gently, trying to usher Harry and Ginny out. "It'll do her good."

Harry stood up, sighed, and said`, "I need to get in to the office anyway. Lily, it'll be okay. Promise you."

"I'm staying," Ginny said.

Hannah looked at her with disapproval. "Lily's body needs a little – "

"I'm not leaving until she leaves the ward," Ginny repeated, setting her jaw and daring Hannah to tell her otherwise. "I'm not leaving her alone."

Harry gave Hannah a look that screamed _no point arguing_ before both stepped out.

Nightmares tore at Lily's dreams that night. Armored hounds with twisted legs and heads chased her about Hogwarts's corridors, snapping at her heals as others dragged people through the walls with their jaws – not just Yaro but her friends and family. As the nightmare dragged on Lily was left alone, only the demonic monstrosities surrounding her in a Hogwarts devoid of anything but the darkness. She woke up with a start and a whimper, her chest heaving and her sheets soaked with sweat. She grabbed at her arms, trying to ward off the foes that had withered away with her sleep.

Ginny snatched her up in a hug, holding her as she calmed down. "It's alright," she whispered while Lily struggled, "you're alright. Shh. Nothing's going to hurt you."

Lily clung to her mother's neck like a younger child. She had to know that something, someone wouldn't leave her alone in the darkness now of all times. Evil was growing bolder, stronger, and she only felt adrift and out of control.

* * *

Gloom settled over Hogwarts.

Students gathered in groups to go anywhere – classes, meals, even the bathrooms. Hushed whispers and wide eyes made up every conversation, and subscriptions to the _Daily Prophet_ soared. Witches and wizards in long brown trench coats patrolled the grounds, wands at their sides, their faces as icy as the snow that refused to melt. Lily even saw the Auror she'd met over the past summer, Dean Thomas, when she left the Herbology greenhouses. He had lost all the cheeriness that had characterized him back in the Ministry, with steel resolve and a steady wand hand replacing it.

Lily knew better than to bother him while on duty.

Lily's owl Andy swooped down at breakfast on the next Saturday following the Hogsmeade skirmish, dropping a cold, frost-lined _Prophet_ in front of her and knocking over Logan's goblet of juice in the process.

"You actually have the rudest owl of all time," noted Wayne as Logan frowned and tried to soak up the spill in between Andy snatching several of his slices of bacon. "Why don't you smack him or something?"

Natalie rolled her eyes. "You're nice, Wayne. The owl gives you the paper and you want to smack him."

"What are you going to do, give him a present for bowling over anything in sight and snatching half of Logan's breakfast? 'Hey, thanks for being a turd, owl. Here's an incentive to do it again.'"

"It's just breakfast. And not _my_ breakfast, so what's the problem?"

"Let's just forget about my breakfast's feelings," Logan grumbled.

Lily wasn't watching. The _Prophet_ 's cover captured her attention, and the more Lily read, the deeper her frown grew.

 _MINISTER: AFTER HOGSMEADE, 'NO MORE HALF-MEASURES'_

 _Minister of Magic Jeffrey Drake laid out an aggressive strategy for combatting the shadowy force blamed for Saturday's attack and abductions at Hogsmeade and the earlier clash at Godric's Hollow. Calling Hogsmeade's skirmish "A wake-up call for unity and defense in the face of terrorism," Drake delivered plans for a country-wide public relations campaign to bring awareness for the recent attacks, consolidation and centralization of Ministry resources, closer ties with Gringotts for financing a stronger defenses in major British wizarding settlements and institutions – including at Hogwarts school, Azkaban, Diagon Alley, and more – and a more stringent and streamlined court system that has earned both praise and controversy._

 _Amongst other points in Drake's plan is the revision of Hogwarts's magical defenses, breached two years ago in a dark wizard's incursion and now facing greater scrutiny in the wake of Hogsmeade's surprise attack. He proposed tighter controls over staffing and executive decision-making, with the Board of Governors taking a more active role in day-to-day school affairs. "We've ignored security around our most vulnerable institutions for too long," noted Drake. "We can have no more half-measures in protecting our children and ensuring a safe learning environment."  
_

 _Said Board member Draco Malfoy, "Without substantial inspection of Hogwarts's vulnerabilities, the school will be vulnerable in ways we cannot predict against a foe we have yet to understand." Noted Ministry contrarian Hermione Weasley dissented, telling the_ Prophet _, "Adding more moving parts to a tenuous situation at best will only introduce more opportunities for an enemy to take advantage of."_

 _Drake's plan to revise wizarding Britain's security apparatus has earned more criticism, however. The Minister offered to allow Aurors authority to investigate and prosecute both actual and potential threats in the field, combined with utilizing Azkaban as a holding facility in order to stem violence before it occurs. Drake also proposed an extrajudicial force independent from the Aurors to act as a quick-response unit in the event of threatening incidents that would report solely to the highest levels of Ministry authority._

" _Centralization of Ministry authority and resources will allow for faster and more accurate response to dangers in this dark time, in the future preventing such widespread damage and chaos as has occurred at Hogsmeade, Godric's Hollow, and abroad," noted Drake in a speech that earned strong applause out of London and Diagon Alley._

 _Growing social activist Alanis Fell panned the move, citing "heavy-handed, authoritarian undertones" that would infringe on civil liberties and threaten disenfranchised members of wizarding society. Applause met her opinion in Hogsmeade and Godric's Hollow – particularly the former after Fell was spotted amongst the town's defenders on Saturday – but a number of influential magical families, as well as Gringotts, have come out against her plans, noting a lack of "any effective strategic detail" and accusing her of populist fearmongering and using the attacks for personal gain._

"That is one long article on the front page," said Wayne, snatching the paper away and laying it out for all four of them to read. "Blah, blah, typical politicians, blah, blah, Ministry, Hogsmeade, blah."

Natalie frowned at the paper. "Really? This happens and everyone starts flinging insults at each other? We should be – I don't know, they're supposed to be the people in charge and they sound like kids. No offense to your aunt, Lily, but this is dumb."

"Never let a crisis go to waste," Wayne murmured.

"What?"

"It's a Muggle saying. Someone blows up half of Hogsmeade and it's a great opportunity to rile up the mob and do things you normally wouldn't be able to. Not always good things. Generally not, even."

"Maybe bad things," Lily agreed, defending Hermione's dissent. "If we just decide on something dumb and it backfires, that's even worse than doing nothing. We should figure out what's right before we do something."

Nat rolled her eyes. "Or we can just argue and get clobbered. That's a great idea, you two."

Logan looked perturbed by the article. He rested his chin on his hands, his elbows propped up on the table as he turned to the next page. "I agree with Nat that we can't sit on our arses, but…" he flipped back to the first page and frowned deeper. "Alanis Fell's on point. 'Consolidating authority.' 'Force independent from the Aurors.' That's a really slippery slope."

Lily wanted to argue, but she knew how Natalie felt. Her friend had woken up in the middle of the night with bad dreams and thrashing arms every night since Saturday. Lily had had her own trouble sleeping as well, and the tinkling of icicles falling in the wind made her jump, expecting to see Sion's draug shooting ice daggers through her window at any moment. She'd skipped both Transfiguration classes since the weekend, despite a substitute coming in to teach. It was bad enough seeing Yaro unconscious and in the warg's grasp in her dreams. Entering his old class and seeing someone else instructing would reduce her to a blubbering mess. Even the Ravenclaws' Defense Against the Dark Arts classes in the past week had been tough: Professor Corner had doubled down on revising the Shield Charm, but every time Logan had shot a hex at Lily to block, she'd panicked and ducked instead, images of Dolohov's exploding corpse invading her thoughts, immediately followed by overwhelming self-criticism.

She wasn't the only student struggling. While the hospital ward had emptied of students hurt in the attack, just as many or more had stumbled in with complications from mounting stress and anguish, anxiety attacks, and more. The physical scars of Hogsmeade paled in comparison to the psychological damage.

"Come on, I'm getting sick inside," Lily said, rolling up the paper and tossing it down the table. "Stupid politics is going to give me a headache. Let's go."

Logan pushed away his owl-eaten breakfast and followed after her, Natalie and Wayne in tow, still bickering over the newspaper article.

The heavy snowstorm that had buffeted the region had passed, but the cold remained. Even the pristine, cloud-free blue sky and shining white sun couldn't raise the temperature above freezing, and Lily pulled her blue and bronze striped scarf tight around her throat. Wind howled through the trees, making her shudder as she thought of the draug's throaty roars and shouts. Closing her eyes and shaking off the feeling, she crouched down in the snow and started building a mound.

Logan raised an eyebrow. "Are we redecorating the grounds before the next storm?"

"Feel free to go inside and write our essay on growing blubbering mudlamps, or whatever we did in Herbology," said Lily, still piling snow on her mound.

Natalie tilted her head at Lily's construction. "Is that a snowman? It is! We should turn him into Professor Longbottom."

"It's going to be a little hard to get a snowman to make awkward jokes about Mimbulus Mimbletonias in class," noted Wayne. "But hey, you're the tops in Charms, Nat, so if you know a spell I don't…"

"Well right now it's just a giant albino dog poop, so maybe we can work on it first," said Lily.

Logan shrugged, picked up a huge armful of snow, and sat it down on top of Lily's mound. Half of it fell on top of her and she laughed, throwing it at him as he shaped it to form Snowman Longbottom's torso. Wayne brushed away the bottom to make him look less troll-like as Natalie lumped a head on top, sticking rocks in for the eyes and planting a twig for his nose.

Logan frowned at her work. "You turned him into a hag, Nat."

"How is he a hag?"

"Eyes are way off-center and his nose is longer than my foot."

"Then you do the head!"

Logan obliged, working at it so meticulously that he was still at it as Lily, Wayne, and Natalie finished off the body, tied Wayne's red scarf around his neck ("For all that Gryffindor stuff he yodels about") and planted a number of twigs around him as a pseudo greenhouse.

"Lord, mate, you turned it into an art project," Wayne said as Logan stepped back at last to admire his creation. He'd scattered gravel across the snowman's face to give him a rough shave, cut lines across his forehead and cheeks, and even scattered dead grass on his head to mirror Neville's loose hair.

Logan squinted at it. "It's attention to detail. I messed up on his cheeks a bit. Too much beard."

"You are a huge geek," Natalie said. "He needs gloves, since he's in the greenhouse we made for him. Wayne, give me yours."

Wayne grabbed hers off her hands instead, sticking them on Neville the Snowman's stick arms and earning a snowball from Natalie for his efforts. He pitched one back, Logan hurled one at him, Lily returned fire, and soon the four had broken into two groups of two, hurling snowballs, laughing, and catching the snowman in the crossfire so that Logan's snow art went to waste as soon as Natalie tackled Wayne and knocked Snow Longbottom's head clean off.

"Oh, you're in trouble now. Look what you did to Professor Longbottom!" Wayne laughed.

Natalie giggled and hit him with a snowball at point-blank range. "You started it by stealing my gloves. That's fifty points from Ravenclaw."

"Oh great, Nat, that's even worse. Did you forget what house you're in?"

Logan stood next to Lily and watched the two fling another round of snowballs at each other. "Professor Snowman didn't last too long," he mused.

"It _was_ a pretty good Neville," said lily.

He laughed, and Lily felt a surge of warmth well up in her. _Mission accomplished with the cheer, Dad._


	43. Closing In

_**Thanks so much for some really nice reviews, guys – that's really kind of you to say especially, MMM, and same goes for Charms and Don' . I always welcome fair criticism, and you all have been giving me good tips and feedback throughout the story. It's always great to hear support, so thank you so much! But please, do keep on pointing out where I can improve. Helps me write better, and then I can deliver a better story and do Lily and the gang justice.**_

 _ **I'm actually an econ student, but hey, glad you liked the**_ **Prophet** _**article, MMM – tried to take some points from real newspapers for that one, and I'm happy it worked out. Glad you liked the end scene, Charms – I'm trying to develop writing happier scenes (negative ones I got in spades, but that gets crushing after a while). As for Sion, heh, he's a boatload of fun to write. Happy you like him! 23 chapters in total for this book, so this one plus five more - and Scorpius is going to be in them all minus this one as we come in on the climax ;). And as far as ship names go…as a Game of Thrones fan, Volanis is awesome, haha.**_

 _ **In this chapter…developments for later on down the line, Stennis is slimy, and Vos and Alanis play ping-pong with Lily's thoughts.**_

* * *

"Oh please, do you think Genseric's going to be flustered because the Ministry knows what Sion's name is now? Their orders and proposals make about as much noise to him as a screaming termite."

Lily shuffled against her chair back and watched as Alanis verbally assailed Vos in his office. The Headmaster had let her into the castle ("I think she proved her worth in battle") and now she butt her head against the stone wall of Vos's reticence to sign on with her cause. She was persuasive, Lily had to give her that: Maribor, of all people, didn't have so much as a single sarcastic insult for her after delivering several bombs on the Ministry in every conversation, and even Lily warmed up to her incendiary zingers against the state of wizarding Britain in the face of Sion and Genseric's lightning campaign across Europe. Vos still held firm.

He smacked his hand against the table, stuck out his jaw at her, and said, "I know _he's_ not bothered. But you think you're building a stronger defense for the country by turning half of the people against the other half? Lily's aunt is doing a fine job of setting up actual criticism of the Ministry's plans while not ripping Britain in two."

Alanis shot Lily a look. "You tell us, Lily, is your aunt getting through to anyone?"

Lily fidgeted in her chair. More and more she felt like a pawn these two old flames were moving back and forth around some giant chessboard as they fought to win the other over. "I think she has a plan and that people figure out the right idea and agree on it before rushing into something dumb."

Vos held out a hand in faux victory. _See?_

"Hermione's a good woman, but she's fighting yesterday's war with yesterday's weapons," Alanis said, dismissing the notion. _Why ask my opinion at all, then?_ "If the Minister and his followers and his _handlers_ don't want to listen to her and other level heads, they won't. No matter how much those heads have to say. Gringotts and Jeffrey Drake know how to destroy someone in the court of public opinion. They're already doing it to John Maribor with the whole questions over Hogwarts's security. They'll do it to Hermione too unless she gets serious about what she's fighting for."

"Good lord, listen to yourself," Vos scoffed. "You sound like you're chomping to kick off a full-scale civil war. That'll definitely keep Sion and Genseric away, ya."

Alanis leaned over the table. "You know the kind of people who share my opinions? People in Hogsmeade. Godric's Hollow. Villages across the country. Everyday folks with everyday fears and real things to lose. Sion and Genseric don't care about those things, and neither does the Ministry, catering to Gringotts's money and the old families' concerns about losing status and influence. That puts them on the same side of the coin as far as I see, and fighting evil is fighting evil."

"Why is it just two sides?" Lily said quietly.

Vos scowled at Alanis and jabbed a thumb at Lily. "You know your real problem here, Alanis? Everything's black and white to you. The bad guys and the good guys. The Ministry didn't help your family during Voldemort's war, so they're just as bad as Voldemort. Now they're using a crisis for their own ends, so they're as bad as our mentor."

"As far as I'm concerned, they are."

"And you're fookin' wrong. Lily, your family's well-connected. Tell me this, do you think all the Ministry people you've ever talked with want to kidnap and mutate people and attack towns with them?"

Lily scrunched up her face. _That's a loaded question_. "That's not really fair."

"Who's shallow now? There's different ways to be evil," Alanis said.

"Well, then – "

"No, you're going first. You can't hole up in here and hide from Genseric and Sion forever, and they're going to come here eventually. Like Hogwarts really will stop them. Even if they don't, you tell me how running from everything will help if the Ministry takes things a step too far in trying to keep everyone 'safe,' Jurre? What if they decide to throw Lily's aunt in jail? Or worse, she pisses them off and they put her in chains and chuck her in Azkaban? Are you going to sit here in your tower and keep chirping about patience then?"

 _Now they're really using me_. "I don't think my Dad would let them do that," Lily murmured. "I mean, he's the head of the Aurors, and – and he's…well…all the Voldemort stuff."

"Your dad's one man. A great man, but twenty years is more than enough time to forget all that," Alanis said. "Do you read the _Prophet_ , Lily? About Drake's ambition to set up some elite force independent from the Aurors? That's one step away from a kill squad. Sion and Genseric's moves are giving them a perfect reason to convince everyone that smashing dissent and discourse is for their own protection and public safety."

Vos laughed derisively. "Bliksem! 'Kill squad.' What's next, the dictatorship of Minister-turned-Emperor Jeffrey Drake? Will he implement wizarding apartheid? You're drastically underestimating the public support Lily's father still has. No one is throwing her in Azkaban, and we don't all have to pick a side between some imagined autocracy and your emotion-driven mob. Hogwarts doesn't have to pick a side. Harry Potter doesn't have to pick a side. That should be good enough."

Lily shivered in her chair. She wanted to listen to Vos, wanted to dismiss Alanis's concerns as hysteria, but something in her words struck a chord. What if Genseric and Sion did keep kidnapping people until witches and wizards everywhere were happy to trade any criticism or opposing views just to feel a slight bit safer? _Safety reforms, all for the public good! Trust us._ She knew Hermione would never go for it, and neither would her parents, but they _were_ just three people at the end of the day. Three incredibly strong people who had done great things, but would anyone remember those things if even Harry Potter couldn't stem a new round of attacks from an opponent who didn't have to show his head like Voldemort did? How long would it be before the Ministry did institute a hit squad like the Minister had proposed in the paper? And if they did…how long until Hermione's fair criticisms were labeled as public dangers and she was swept up in the middle of the night and dragged off to Azkaban?

 _How long would I have after that?_

Yet a cautious voice of reason in the back of her mind stopped her. The Ministry was being heavy-handed and aggressive, but as far as she knew, it wasn't an _evil_ organization. Hermione still worked there. So did her uncle Percy; hell, he headed up an entire department. Teddy Lupin was there, and James was off to work there next year with him. Bill and Fleur worked for Gringotts, and they weren't predators. They couldn't be the only kind ones working there. There was no way so many decent people would just lay down and get run over by the power-hungry whims of the few.

 _Professor Vos is right. This sounds like stupid conspiracy theorizing. Calm down, Lils._

Alanis stood up and sighed. Stress was beginning to cut lines across her forehead, but she was still beautiful in the soft light of Vos's office, her eyes glistening and vivid, and her hair black, thick, and strong. She had the air of someone who wouldn't back down even as Vos rejected her at every turn.

"You know why I keep coming back for this guy?" she asked Lily. "Because he was happy to fight Sion next to me down in the village, and he wouldn't have done that if he really believed what he says. So maybe it'll take some big wake-up call to snap him out of this. Maybe Hogwarts picks a side when Sion returns here and does something more drastic than just having a shootout. I don't know. But I don't give up."

She left and let the office door slam shut behind her. Vos scowled at the door for a moment before pulling out a bottle of firewhisky and taking a long swig straight from the bottle.

"You want?" he asked, slamming the bottle down and wiping his lips.

Lily shook her head. A moment later she slumped her shoulders, leaned forward, and took a swig. The firewhisky scorched her throat and tasted so awful that she coughed and pushed the bottle away after barely swallowing a mouthful. Her stomach lurched.

 _Great, now you're underage drinking. Mum would be thrilled._

As February merged into March and winter gave way to spring, Lily doubled down in schoolwork. She wanted to put aside worrying about demonic attackers invading everywhere she called home and return to the simple things. Homework, Quidditch practices, suspecting Sara Garner had a crush on Amir Khoury, it all felt like a welcome relief. More than anything else, Lily wanted to get her head together. Sion and Genseric and the Ministry and all the worries in the world still lurked in the back of her thoughts, and she couldn't keep lagging behind the other Ravenclaws in classes like Charms and Defense. She felt guilty for wasting so much time early in the term acting like a prat, smacking Evie, blowing up at her Quidditch teammates, and wallowing in self-pity.

 _I need to be better. I'm sick of being stupid._

" _Glacius!_ "

Charms took some trial and error. Lily whipped her wand at her glass bottle of water and shot a puff of gray smoke out of the tip of her wand. The vase did little more than wobble, and beside her Natalie coughed, wafting the sulfur-smelling smoke away from her nose.

Evie side-eyed her from a few desks away right before launching her own Freezing Spell and turning her water into ice. "This spell's probably the easiest one we've learned this year," she said in a touch-too-loud voice to Marie and Kaya. "I don't know how anyone could have trouble with it."

"It's like when dumb people hold back the smart people and make everyone wait," Kaya agreed.

Natalie rolled her eyes. _Don't listen,_ Lily thought, trying to suppress frustration building in her chest. She wanted nothing more than to walk over and punch the air of superiority right out of Evie's skull, but she stayed in her chair. _Don't listen_.

"They're like peas in a pod," muttered Natalie. "That's the thing Wayne said, right? Peas in a pod. I just remembered that. _Glacius!_ "

 _Crack!_ Her perfect spell froze her water so strongly that cracks ran up the glass. Professor Teague looked on and nodded, saying, "That's good. Lily, turn your wrist a little more before you flick your wand down. You're just going straight up right now."

Lily swallowed and flicked her wand. " _Glacius!_ "

Her curse hit the vase dead center. It didn't freeze her water solid like Natalie's, but it did succeed in sprouting several ice chunks that bobbed up to the surface.

"That's better," Professor Teague said with a nod, swiping her wand and resetting their vases with fresh water again. "A little more flick and a little more oomph on the way down and you got it, Lily."

She left the class feeling better about her curse, even if it wasn't all the way there yet. She'd gone into the class doing little more than flinging sparks around and had come out with something resembling competence, even as Evie continued to spout passive-aggressive insults just loud enough for her to overhear. _It's a start_.

Lily hadn't intended to run into someone else who caused a foul taste in her mouth, however.

As she and Natalie wandered down the Grand Staircase towards the Great Hall and lunch, Declan Stennis walked up. Lily saw him at the last moment, trying to look away in a futile attempt to go unnoticed.

"Ms. Potter!" Stennis exclaimed with a toothy smile. "The first nice day of the year and you are cooped up inside with classes! Such is education, I suppose. Perhaps I can gauge your opinion on a matter?"

Lily looked to Natalie. _Help!_ "We…we had an appointment down in Potions," her friend lied, trying to come up with a suitable defense to ward off the Ministry official. "Professor Piper – "

"Certainly can put it off," Stennis chuckled, waving off Natalie's fib. "Come, come, Lily, let us talk. It is midday, it is a good time."

Giving Natalie a halfhearted wave, Lily followed Stennis up the stairs. For a Ministry so concerned with cutting costs, they hadn't skimped on Stennis's salary: The man had a new outfit every week, this one silver and bronze to match his gold sun pendant. His hair was perfectly coiffed, slick with some product or another, and even his skin glowed as if he'd lathered makeup on before showing up to the castle. He gazed at the portraits of the wall as they walked, making a suggestive face at a painting of a comely witch who scowled at him, hitched up her dress, and beelined for the next portrait over.

"You have spoken with your father since the Hogsmeade incident, yes?" Stennis asked as they walked. "He has conferenced with the Headmaster over this school's security, I believe. It is a point of concern for the Ministry, keeping hundreds of children safe. Aurors on the grounds is a start."

Lily said nothing. _Don't try to attack Dad in front of me, guy._

Stennis had another target in mind. "I have spoken with John Maribor. He has not taken the situation particularly seriously, rejecting the Ministry's offers for increased safety measures and proposing no others besides the Aurors. I know you have spoken with him from time to time. Has he expressed any sort of possessive tendencies around you? I particularly believe his view of the school as 'his' is threatening the security of students like you. It is more important we work together as one wizarding nation in times like these, not end up divided by trivialities."

"He's the Headmaster. Isn't he in charge?" said Lily as they stopped halfway up a staircase leading from the fourth floor to the fifth. A suit of armor wielding a battleaxe shook his arm, trying to get the creaks out of the metal into Lily slapped his elbow.

"Much thanks, milady!" the armor said, slamming his visor shut.

Stennis looked around Lily with an odd expression. "He must be; there are always many of these sorts of strange oddities around the castle. I believe they fit Albus Dumbledore's personality more than a divisive man such as John Maribor. The Headmaster has allowed the Quidditch season to go on despite the Hogsmeade attack. This does not bother you?"

"No. Why would it?"

"It seems a vulnerability. Very well, Maribor impresses upon you all the need for Quidditch in a time like this. Interesting."

Lily swallowed hard as Stennis wrote something on a note, dimly aware she'd said something wrong. _What was wrong with playing Quidditch?_ If anything, sticking with sports and having fun made her feel much more at ease than being pent up in the castle, fearful that something would come and grab her the moment she stepped outside the Entrance Hall.

"He – he did cancel Hogsmeade trips, so he's not doing nothing," Lily stammered, trying to defend her Headmaster. _Never let a crisis go to waste, Wayne had said – and it looks like Stennis is using a crisis to move in on the Headmaster's job. And I just give him ammo. Great_.

Stennis shrugged. "It is an obvious course of action. The Board of Governors is concerned it is not enough. They have ultimate say, of course, and like updates on the mood of students. I let them know. Your father has mentioned a lack of manpower to defend Hogwarts and Hogsmeade properly; Aurors have never numbered more than several dozen at best. I suggested an emergency Floo conduit, surveillance spells, and more to defend the castle, but Maribor…has been less than receptive. I believe his words were, 'I can defend my school, and I don't need you.' Perhaps. The Board disagrees, but as long as nothing breaches the castle walls, I suppose the man is right, yes?"

Lily bit her lip as Stennis walked off with a smile. _As long as nothing breaches the castle walls_. Stennis had left the implied threat unsaid – that if something did worm its way in after Hogsmeade, the Headmaster would be packing his bags.

Unfortunately, Lily knew something already had found its way into the castle this year.

* * *

 _Phantasm. Classification: Non-being_.

 _Distribution/Habitat: Most often found in arid environments, magizoologists have found phantasms naturally in all areas between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. Unlike their cousins, Dementors, unbound phantasms display a strict aversion to the cold, hibernating during unseasonal winters and remaining in their lairs during chilly desert nights. First observed in 1274 B.C. in Kadesh following the Hittite defeat at the hands…_

Lily flipped the page of _The Magizoologist's Handbook to Creatures of the Shadows_ , curling up in a chair in front of one of the fireplaces in the Ravenclaw common room. She hadn't seen the phantasm once since her run-in with the beast – non-being actually, according to this book – back during the prior term, but if Maribor and Vos hadn't managed to boot it from the castle as the latter had aimed to do, Lily knew trouble may still lurk in the halls – a much more troubling prospect now that she knew Stennis and the school Board of Governors were on the prowl for trouble. She'd already lost one teacher this year. She didn't want to lose any more.

 _Feeding Habits: Phantasms have no observable need for tangible food, despite having a corporeal form. Instead the non-beings act as parasites on humans and other sentient beings, invading minds and feasting on thought, emotion, and memory. Phantasms have evolved to evoke fear and anxiety in targets in order to spur more vivid emotions and thoughts, thus creating a vicious cycle in victims that over time can leave prey in catatonic states – at which point phantasms leave their targets for new, more fertile feeding grounds._

 _Domestication and Repelling: Both dark wizards and goblins have tamed phantasms in the past, deploying them as psychological weapons and spies – most notably in the 1612 Goblin Rebellion. However, such taming has been observed to drain phantasms of their magical energy, forcing them to feed more often and increasing their natural vulnerabilities. When deprived of considerable numbers of prey to feed upon – such as in Hogsmeade during the 1612 rebellion – tamed phantasms are forced to spend more time in their corporeal forms, which – unlike their noncorporeal forms as black fog or shadows – are vulnerable to conventional spells and curses. Unlike Dementors, however, phantasms have never shown any particular vulnerability to the Patronus Charm. Rather, the positive energy of the Patronus only bolsters a phantasm's magical field, allowing –_

Logan looked up at her from a nearby chair, his 'Five Most Common Uses for the Reductor Curse" essay now sprawling across three feet of parchment. The common room was nearly deserted apart from a few fifth-years packing up to go to bed and, beside the other fireplace, Sara Garner with _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 3_ perched on her lap.

"You didn't see that thing again, did you?" said Logan, looking at what Lily was reading.

She shook her head. "I just want to be prepared."

"Why don't you write your dad or someone else about that thing?"

"Professor Vos and the Headmaster already know about it. Vos said they'd try and get rid of it last term, but…I mean, just in case. I want to know what happens if it keeps coming around. Besides, I just wrote my aunt earlier. I don't want to go back to the Owlery."

"About that shifty Ministry guy?"

Lily sighed, nodded, shut her book, and shifted her chair closer to him. She looked to make sure nobody was listening in – the fifth-years left for their dormitories, and Sara looked far too engrossed in her textbook to care – and whispered, "I think he's looking for a reason to get our professors fired."

"What, all of them?"

"I don't know. Maybe the Headmaster. Maybe Professor Vos. He didn't like Yaro."

Logan frowned at Yaro's name. "What happened to him…it's not like Professor Yaro got sacked. I'm not saying I don't believe you – I do, stacking the deck makes sense for people who want more control – I just think if you're trying to find a link between that…creature thing…and the Ministry guy, you're going to end up inventing a connection and believing in that. That's not exactly right."

"I thought you wanted to fight. You complained about transfiguring teacups."

"I do, just – " Logan paused, glancing over towards Sara before lowering his voice and whispering, "I'd rather fight something we know is evil. What's the point in getting mad about who's teaching what when you and I know the facts behind who attacked Godric's Hollow and Hogsmeade? Come on, Lily. I get looking into this dark creature thing you saw, but not because it's risking people's jobs. I'd be a little more concerned because it might let something else in."

Lily slumped her shoulders. _Stop being right, Logan_. He _was_ right – worrying about things like professors' job security was exactly the sort of thing that bothered her about the Ministry's response to Hogsmeade. Yet here she was, doing exactly the same thing as soon as she thought Stennis was here to remove her favorite teachers, ignoring the big picture all because she was mad.

 _Wait a minute_. "Nat said your dad's on the Board of Governors," Lily said, her eyes lighting up.

Logan looked at her suspiciously. "Yeah. So?"

"Well, you could ask him to…you could get your dad to say Hogwarts is fine as it is with all our teachers. Maybe that we didn't need people like Declan Stennis wandering around and prying."

He bristled and leaned away. "No. Don't ask me that."

"But if – "

"No. Dead serious. I'm, not asking my father nor my family nor anyone else I know to get involved in any of this. I'm not going to be responsible for that. That's that."

Lily grumbled. Logan had the power to influence things. All he needed to do was win over his dad, say the right word, and _bam_ , problem solved. No more Stennis and the _Prophet_ mentioning that the Board of Governors was worried about Hogwarts's safety. No more political battle between the Headmaster and the Ministry. It was that simple.

Then she felt a wave of guilt hit her. _You could get Dad to do the same. Or Uncle Percy. You don't. You just want someone else to do the work._

She stared down at her hands and felt like an idiot. "Sorry," she mumbled. "I'm stupid."

"No, it's fine. Just drop it."

"I dragged you into this in the first place," she muttered, more to herself than to him.

Logan sighed and rolled up his essay. "Lily, stop. I'm happy I know. I'd still be here otherwise, only I'd have no idea what was going on or who really had attacked my home town last term. I hate just sitting on my hands more than anything and you're a good friend. Just if you want to ask me something, ask it of me. I'm willing and ready to get hurt fighting myself. I'm not going to be the reason someone else gets hurt, though."

Lily felt something funny in her chest. _I do not deserve to be friends with this guy_. _I'm in way over my head while Logan always has all his stuff together_.

"Forget this essay," said Logan, curling it up all the way and getting up. "I'm going to bed. See you in the morning."

"Logan, wait," said Lily, turning around before he could get to the entrance to the dormitories. She wanted to tell him he was a good friend and that she appreciated his willingness to listen, but none of the words came out. "I…good night."

He nodded, and without a word left for bed.


	44. Potter vs Potter

_**Thanks for the awesome reviews, Charms and MMM! Glad the dialogue worked, Marauder – sometimes the "explanation" chats feel a little forced in my head (that last chapter was definitely one of them), so I'm happy to hear it doesn't sound too ostentatious. As for Scorpius – we've still got two full years for him and Lily to draw in closer, but don't worry: At the end of this book is when the first…warming up…begins between the two of them, largely due to an event that's beginning next chapter.**_

 _ **In this chapter (our last school-esque one for Book 2 before the finale), Rose and Lily don't see eye-to-eye, Quidditch occurs (good lord I need to be more concise with my Quidditch matches, but it's way too addictive to write every little detail of play), and Hermione sends a strange letter.**_

* * *

Lily thought it impossible that anything could draw her mind away from the dark developments around Hogwarts. The Ministry, Sion and Genseric, all of it – even as the _Daily_ _Prophet_ reported no new attacks after Hogsmeade as spring arrived with rain and sprouting green grass around the castle, Lily obsessed over what could come next. As it turned out, it wasn't some spawn of evil that swept her away next in her topsy-turvy third year. It was Quidditch.

Vale had eased up on practices following the attack at Hogsmeade, but as the immediacy of the threat waned and the day-to-day grind of class and school returned to the forefront again, the Quidditch season finale between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw loomed larger and larger. Lily's thighs ached from clinging to her broom nearly every weekday night, and her nightmares of wargs and draugs and deformed Dolohovs slipped away, replaced by James and Rose and Roxanne lording a five hundred-point Gryffindor victory in her face as the entire school sneered at her from the Quidditch stadium stands.

"It's okay, sis," dream-James chuckled in her nightmares, "maybe you'll win your next game against the Muggle team. Probably not, though; your Chasers are _awful_. What position do you play, again? I couldn't tell watching Rose scoring every five seconds."

Lily'd gotten used to the week-before antics that led up to Quidditch matches: There were the dark looks from across classrooms, hushed whispers and laughter followed by side-eye glances, and, with the Gryffindor-Slytherin and Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff rivalries in particular, fast-spreading accusations of players from either team plotting to hex opposing players. The week before the final match of the season was something else entirely. Gryffindor had so annihilated Hufflepuff and Slytherin in their first two matches that the Ravenclaws were looked at as victims of the hammer of what many were calling one of the best Quidditch teams in Hogwarts history. Alroy McLaggen loudly guaranteed Gryffindor's inevitable victory and coronation in Herbology, and the Slytherins – having deconstructed Hufflepuff by three hundreds points in their season finale – were so sympathetic to the Ravenclaws that Lily half-expected their houses to ink a formal anti-Gryffindor alliance.

Even Scorpius Malfoy, of all people, joined in on the one-week Ravenclaw bandwagon.

"God, please just destroy Gryffindor," he said when Lily bumped into Hugo and him in the Entrance Hall. "I feel like I'm drowning in smugness. Look, look at all that holier-than-thou-ism just radiating off of them. Like, 'oh, sorry, I can't see you over how bright my imaginary crown is.' Nauseating."

Lily bit her lip as she watched Rose and several of her chittering friends head into the Great Hall for supper, bright smiles plastered on each of their faces. "You know, maybe you might get along better with them if you didn't say things like that," she observed.

"What, they hate the truth, too? That wouldn't surprise me. It would clash with all the red and gold."

"Have you ever tried being civil, Scorpius? Like ever in your life?"

He ignored her. "You know, I actually don't think your brother Al is that bad, but how in the bowels of hell did he get sorted into that house?"

"Maybe because not all Gryffindors practice 'holier-than-thou-ism.' Just like not all Slytherins are you."

Hugo coughed to cut in. "Um, Lily…did Al say anything about Roxanne and my sister?"

Lily frowned. "No."

"Er…they've been saying some...not-nice things about you behind your back."

"What?"

Scorpius scoffed. "Rose has gone away from saying those things to people's faces, I see."

"Rose's…" Hugo stumbled over his words, looking uncertain about ratting out his sister, "she's been telling her friends that you're pretty awful at Quidditch whenever she gets asked about playing against you. I mean I guess it's just banter, but they're pretty convinced now."

"Just hit her and embrace going full evil," Scorpius suggested.

Lily stormed away from them without another word. Yes, she wasn't as good a Quidditch player as Rose, but that didn't mean her cousin had to go about dumping on her in private. She wanted nothing more than to go into the Great Hall and punch the smile off of Rose's face, but that would implicate Hugo and make her look like even more of a git, not to mention give Gryffindor more ammo to rally around. It wouldn't be "Lily and the awful Quidditch players about to be sacrificed to the Gryffindor God" but "Lily the unstable child who can't keep her hands to herself." She'd learned that lesson with Evie already.

The only way she could shoot back was by doing the unthinkable and winning on Saturday.

The weekend arrived with a heavy downpour. Cool spring rain battered the castle throughout the night and early morning, and by the time Lily calmed her nerves enough to trudge down to the Great Hall for breakfast, the grounds were a quagmire. She refused to so much as look at the Gryffindor table, instead biting on her tongue to slow her pounding heart and try to conceive forcing down food.

Logan, as usual, was ignoring most of the Quidditch fervor. While he wore a blue jacket in support for the Ravenclaws, he flipped through the _Daily Prophet_ while Wayne groused about what was about to go down at the pitch.

"No, there is _zero_ chance of that," he was in the midst of telling Natalie as Lily sat down. "Losing to Slytherin by as much as we did and inching past Hufflepuff means we're out. I mean, if we won by like… _eight hundred_ we could feasibly win the Cup, but let's be real. Now we could play spoiler and ruin Gryffindor's day if we won by…three hundred or so, because then there'd be a three-way tie between the houses with two wins and one loss apiece, and if we won by that amount, Slytherin would take the overall point differential and win the Cup. Hufflepuff beat nobody, so they're…well, they had their funeral the moment they suited up this year."

Natalie looked lost. "That's stupid."

"Why is that stupid?"

"Why isn't it whoever wins today wins the Cup?"

"Because…I'm done. Get Lily to explain."

Lily scooped mash on her plate and ignored them. She didn't want to look at or talk about anything Quidditch-related until she was in the locker room waiting for the match to start. Her fears of utter athletic embarrassment at the hands of her family had multiplied with her dreams overnight, and now she thought the mere act of making eye contact with James or Rose would make her hyperventilate.

"God, I'm sick of the wait," Wayne bemoaned. "Let's just have it out right here over breakfast. Seven of us with wands verses seven of them, like some old American gunfight."

Lily stirred breakfast around her plate in little swirls. "They're all fourth-year or above. They'd crush us. But that'll happen anyway, so what's the point?"

" _That's_ not very optimistic," Natalie chirped. "You just have to play better than them, right?"

Lily shot her a gloomy look.

She and Wayne left for the pitch ten minutes later, neither in particularly high spirits. A hand caught Lily's shoulder as they left the Great Hall, however, pulling her away. She hadn't wanted to see James, but Al…well, he wasn't playing against them today. He was dressed in a crimson coat, but he had on a blue scarf around his neck, breaking from the other Gryffindors decked in red and gold from head to toe.

"You okay?" asked Al. "None of our family's giving you trouble, are they?"

Lily didn't mention Rose. She knew Al was close with her cousin, and the last thing she wanted to do was spark strife. "No. You don't have to wear that. Really."

"What, this?" he said, fingering his scarf. "Yeah I do. I mean, I'm supporting Rose and Roxanne and James –"

"Al, _you_ are a Gryffindor. You should support your house. I'm fine. Really."

"I'm supporting _who_ I want to support, not the houses. So I got the coat for James and our cousins, and the scarf for you. You're my sister, I'm going to cheer for you, and if anyone in my house has a problem, I don't care."

 _Why does he say these things_? Lily screwed her face to stop from tearing up. "Yeah. Well. Thanks," she sniffed.

"Go get 'em, alright?"

Lily nodded and ran away onto the grounds. _Dammit Al, really not the time for a brother-sister talk_. She felt it would be easier to view Gryffindor as one blobby enemy entity today, one red-and-gold mass that talked trash behind her back and aimed to beat her into a pulpy blob on the turf. That way she wouldn't have to view their team as seven people, three of them related to her, one of them being her brother. Of course, that would also mean attributing Al as part of that enemy brigade, and after that… _well, can't do that. Great, now I'll be an even bigger mess._

A mental image of Scorpius laughed at her hypocrisy. _What was that about everyone in Gryffindor being the same, huh?_

She arrived in the Ravenclaw locker room to find a somber scene. Vale sat beside the exit to the pitch, her face contorted in a scowl, her broom lying next to her as she twirled her wand in her hand. Jamie Beaufort looked half-asleep next to her with scrunched-up eyes. Maisie Davies and Wayne talked in low tones, while Royce Marlowe attempted to cheer up Chloe Meredith. The Ravenclaw Seeker looked on the verge of passing out in the face of the Gryffindor machine, especially as Roxanne had caught both Snitches in Gryffindor's past two games.

Lily said nothing. She trudged over to her locker and pulled out her uniform, staring morosely at her name and bronze number seven. Summoning up any confidence about the mountain of a game in front of her felt impossible.

Vale peeked out of the exit after twenty minutes of what felt less like a pregame dressing and more like a funeral. "Well," she breathed, "Good news is that Slytherin and most of Hufflepuff's backing us in blue."

"Everyone's sick of Gryffindor," muttered Jamie. He poked his head out too, groaned, and said, "Oh, sure, don't mention that a quarter of Hogsmeade is out there and almost entirely in red."

"What?" Chloe blanched.

Lily had expected this. The Headmaster had allowed Hogsmeade to turn up in force for the Hufflepuff-Slytherin match as a sort of rallying point for the citizenry in the wake of the attack. Twelve Aurors patrolling about the stadium and in the stands made for a respectably safe environment, and even though the game hadn't been close, the visitors had reveled in the game just as much as the student body. Now, to watch the dominant Gryffindor team…

 _Oh, shite_. Lily hadn't even thought about the Aurors keeping the game safe. _Gee, I wonder which Auror in particular might show up today to watch two of his kids play? Dammit_. Lily hadn't even considered that her father would show up – while she'd seen Aurors patrolling the campus grounds from time to time, she'd never seen her father since the aftermath of Hogsmeade. She'd chalked that up to him being busy, but more likely he'd just stayed out of the way. Now he had an excuse to come out and witness his only chance to see his children go head-to-head in Quidditch while at Hogwarts.

"You okay?" Wayne whispered to her.

Lily was only loosely aware that she was swaying on her stool. She sucked in a deep breath, nodded, and closed her eyes.

Vale stood up before them after a few more minutes, looking angry. "I don't have some big speech about playing up to your level, and who cares if I did," she spat. "But here's this: If Gryffindor clobbers us today, they go down in the record books, and we're the exclamation point. All seven of us. Our names as the finishing touch to their season. They're good Quidditch players. Everyone knows that. So let's go ruin their coronation."

Maisie and Jamie laughed, and Lily forced a smile.

The stands were as packed as Lily had ever seen them. She forced herself to stare straight ahead at Wayne's back as they walked onto the field, afraid of seeing Al or…anyone else. She didn't want to see what color her dad was wearing if he was there. _If. Heh. Keep doubting_. _For that matter, Mum's the Quidditch correspondent for the_ Prophet _, so they might both be here. And they're both Gryffindors. Great._

Vale walked up to the center of the pitch, where Master Higgs waited with his whistle in one hand and his broom in the other. From the Gryffindor side James marched out, his jaw set and his face all steel. He didn't shoot one glance Lily's way. He and Vale shook hands, but both looked on the verge of breaking into a fight right there.

Lily closed her eyes and heard Finley Elkwood's familiar voice commentating from the booth. "James Potter looking determined to close out his last game at Hogwarts and a dominant season with a win," Finley remarked. "Word has it that the Kenmare Kestrals and Montrose Magpies have even begun showing interest his way as a Beater this spring, so more Quidditch could be on the way for his career. Three seventh-years in all on the Gryffindor side, plus resurgent Seeker Roxanne Weasley, who's riding a wave of confidence, and star Chaser Rose Weasley. The odds are heavily in their favor, especially against a young Ravenclaw squad that slipped by Hufflepuff in the opener and then fell strongly to Slytherin."

A loud chant burst from the blue-clad Slytherin section at that. _They have to know they have no chance,_ thought Lily. _No way in hell do we win by three hundred or whatever Wayne said would give them the edge for the Cup. And when the hell did pro Quidditch teams start looking James's way? Nobody told me that._

Higgs pulled the Snitch from its box. "Lads, lasses, let's roll," he said.

Lily kicked a leg over her broom and took a deep breath. Higgs launched the Snitch into the air and Roxanne and Chloe shot after it, little more than red and blue blurs a half-second after taking off. Higgs held out the Quaffle as Royce and the Gryffindor Keeper, a stocky girl named Kacie Foote, raced off to their goals.

"You know how this goes," he said, releasing the Bludgers with his foot as Jamie, Maisie, James, and his fellow Gryffindor Beater, Adam Wood, darted into the air. "Game on."

He tossed the Quaffle up and Vale snared it immediately. She reeled back on the Ravenclaw side of the pitch as the crowd roared in anticipation, Lily and Wayne following her up.

"Keep the tempo slow, guys," Vale shouted at them. "We play at their speed and we're cooked. Good passes, strong D, smart shots, don't get crazy."

Rose and her fellow Chasers raced in immediately. Vale dumped the Quaffle off to Lily. She grabbed it in her hands just as a Bludger flew her way. Lily dodged to the side, looking around as she saw James high above and ahead of her. She only got a millisecond to look, however – her brother and Wood scattered as Maisie launched a retaliatory line drive at them.

 _Just breathe, Lily_.

She slipped behind Vale and Wayne as cover and made her way up the left side of the pitch, the crowd a blue-and-red blur streaking past her. All thoughts of Al, her mum and dad, and anyone else watching disappeared at once as the Gryffindor Chasers angled in for an attack run. Lily saw two of them aiming straight for her and she fired off a pass to Wayne.

"Interception by Rose Weasley!" Finley shouted from the box. "Headed the other way with a big lead, no one in front of her but Keeper Marlowe, and – that's a score for Gryffindor, ten-zero for the red and gold."

"God dammit!" Lily screamed.

Royce looked just as angry at Keeper, stretching his arms wide as if to ask, _where was the defense, guys?_

Lily smoldered. Rose looked all too smug headed back towards the Gryffindor side of the field, high-fiving her teammates as she went. Vale took the Quaffle again and headed back down the pitch, using a screen from Jamie's Bludger to set up a three-on-one against one of the other Gryffindor Chasers. She passed back to Wayne, who roared down the middle of the pitch, clutching the ball to his chest as he streaked in on the goals.

 _Whump!_

A Bludger came out of nowhere, dislodging the ball with perfect accuracy. Wayne flailed at it and missed as Kacie Foote grabbed it, circling on of her hoops before handing off to Rose. Lily looked up and saw James and Wood regrouping and heading off for another Bludger, the two of them clearly winning their battle against Maisie and Jamie so far.

"Another dash for the Gryffindors up the pitch," Finley called out as Lily and Wayne struggled to catch up, with only Vale left a defensive position. "Weasley passes to Van Lo, who hands it back to her right away, off to Martins – and swatted away by Leng, now Weasley and Leng diving for the Quaffle – "

Lily and Wayne dove to join the scrum. Rose picked off the ball before Vale could get it, but Lily didn't bother slowing down to adjust her course. She let out all her frustration about the game in one moment, swiping for the ball with her fist and smacking it so hard she slammed Rose right in the throat.

Higgs's whistle blew, and Finley wasn't happy. "Master Higgs calls a foul on Potter, and he's calling the game tight, I see. I call that hard-nosed, spirited defense, but I'm not officiating. Regardless, one shot on goal for Weasley. Weasley protesting now, not sure what for –"

"The hell?" Rose shouted, waving her hand between Higgs and Lily. "That should be more than just a foul shot!"

Higgs tossed her the Quaffle. "You got a foul, be happy. Get on your broom and stop holding us up."

Rose grumbled, took the ball, and scored easily. She shot Lily a dirty look on the way down the field after sending Gryffindor up by twenty. Lily replied with her middle finger.

 _Glad the ref didn't see that_ , she thought as the Slytherin and Ravenclaw section applauded. It was worth it.

"A little family animosity between Chasers as Torres takes the ball up for Ravenclaw," Finley called out. "Torres, blowing by the Gryffindor defense, shakes James Potter's Bludger, shakes _Wood_ 's Bludger, fakes a pass to Leng and loses Weasley, fires right, and scores! Twenty-ten Gryffindor now after Torres takes the Quaffle coast-to-coast."

Wayne looked ferocious as he flew back up the field, clapping Lily's hand as he went. Vale joined them, punching his shoulder and shooting a look at the Gryffindor Chasers. "Somebody needed to punch that little idiot over there," she told Lily with a hint of triumph in her grin. "Don't sweat the foul."

Gryffindor and Ravenclaw slugged it out over the next series of goals. Vale, Wayne, and Lily played conservatively enough to stem the bleeding, but Maisie and Jamie were completely overmatched against James and Wood at Beater. By the time Vale called a timeout ten minutes later, the score had bloomed to ninety-forty in Gryffindor's favor. Wayne had accounted for the entirety of Ravenclaw's scoring so far as James had teed off on Vale every time she touched the Quaffle, opting to let the third-year Chasers sink or swim on offense and trust Rose and her group to overpower them.

"Maisie, Jamie, you guys are getting crushed up there," said Vale as the team swooped in to conference. "Chloe, stay up there. No, don't come down here. Stay up there and keep looking for the Snitch. Beaters, what is going on?"

Jamie shook his head. "They're shadowing us. Every time we close in on a Bludger, they beat us to it and hit it away at you guys. I haven't hit anything in ten minutes."

"Well that's great. I can't even keep the Quaffle for more than a microsecond before something else is launched my way."

"Why don't we just clump together, then?" Lily suggested. "Wayne's been getting it in every time he can get through their line. It's the only thing working."

Vale frowned. "How about this. Beaters, stop trying to go for Bludgers. We're not beating Potter and Wood. We gotta make them come to us, so start denying them the chance to remove you guys from the game. Just circle us whenever we go on the attack and put yourselves between us and their bats. They hit something at us, you send them Bludgers at their Chasers. Just don't stray too far. Wayne, you're faster than the rest of us, so you stick as an outlet pass in case we get swamped. Lily, you take the Quaffle up the pitch, and follow me in. I'll pave the way with the Beaters and open things up. Dish to Wayne if it gets too hot."

Lily swallowed hard and nodded. _So it's up to me to start scoring._ That wasn't exactly what she intended, but there wasn't time to argue.

The Ravenclaws took to the air again and Lily grabbed the Quaffle, following right behind Vale as they moved upfield. James blasted a Bludger her way, but Maisie shot up ahead, swung her bat, and fired the ball straight at the arrow of Chasers inbound to break up their formation. They scattered and Lily blew on through, Rose closing in on her left. Lily clung to the Quaffle for dear life as Rose reached in to knock it loose. She tried to swat her cousin's hand, threw her shoulder in defense, and heard Higgs's whistle blow.

"Well, _that_ 's a strict interpretation of the rulebook," Finley commented as the blue-clad crowd booed. "Higgs calls cobbing on Lily Potter, turning the Quaffle over to Gryffindor. I'd say if you could call a foul on _anyone_ …well, I'll let the Slytherin section make my case for me."

The Slytherins indeed didn't like the call. Someone from their section of the stands blurted out, "Ref, you suck!" and soon a chant rose up from the Ravenclaw supporters. Master Higgs looked pleased, welcoming the insults with one beckoning hand as he tossed the Quaffle to Rose.

Not ten seconds went by before Maisie and one of the Gryffindor Chasers got into it, earning a foul shot for both teams.

Finley was beside himself in the commentator's booth. "Let them _play_ , ref. We didn't come out here in the rain to watch free shots on goal. Someone wake me up when the Quidditch gets underway."

Higgs scowled at the booth and mouthed something that looked to Lily like, "Are you shitting me?"

Rose scored her shot easily. Vale took the Quaffle for Ravenclaw, tossing it to Lily and letting her have a go. She steeled herself and rose in front of Kacie Foote, looking for the best way to get past the Gryffindor Keeper. Her opponent was much larger one-on-one, one of the stockiest girls Lily had seen at Hogwarts, with shoulders that seemed wide enough to intercept a shot no matter which goal Lily fired at.

Urging her broom forward, Lily clutched the Quaffle with both hands as Kacie hovered around her central hoop. Lily veered right, cocked her arm to fire back towards the left hoop and drew Kacie's defense. She tossed the Quaffle up in front of her instead, launching it back towards the right hoop and straight past the Keeper's outstretched hand.

"And that's a goal for Ravenclaw!" Finley called out as Lily felt a surge of relief. The embarrassment of going scoreless against her family would have killed her.

With that hurdle out of the way, Lily loosened up. She clutched the Quaffle and dug in behind Vale their next trip up the field, Wayne drawing attention from James's Bludger when he made a move to head up the pitch. Wood blasted in the other Bludger to dislodge Lily, but Maisie and Jamie kept so close to her that they couldn't touch her. She closed in on the Gryffindor goal and pulled back as the opposing Chasers formed up a line to stop her, peeling all the way back to midfield to collect herself and line up another run.

"Ravenclaws're playing keepaway here," noted Finley. "Time of possession's heavily in their favor, and Gryffindor's Chasers haven't touched the Quaffle for several minutes. Their offense has fizzled, but I can't blame the Ravenclaw strategy here – when Potter and Wood are beating down their door, playing cautiously is limiting chances for the other team. Still a fifty-point deficit to make up, however, and it seems that captain Vale Leng's putting all her faith in Seeker Chloe Meredith to give the Ravenclaws a chance at winning."

The Slytherins did not like the cautious strategy one bit, and Lily shook of several swear words from their section as she headed up the pitch behind her arrow of blockers. The Gryffindors closed in from all sides to dislodge the Quaffle, but she spotted an opening behind James as he flew in, ditching the ball in front of him to Wayne. Her friend snatched it, almost juked Rose completely off her broom, and knifed in for an easy goal.

Lily could see the frustration on the Gryffindor faces. Each time they crossed midfield the Ravenclaw amoeba swarmed them, ignoring going after the Bludgers entirely until James or Wood belted them out and then using the incoming balls to their advantage. The Gryffindor high-octane offense ground to a halt as Lily crept her way up the pitch like the Quidditch version of a sloth, holding the ball as long as she could before making little safe passes and utilizing her Beaters as mobile armor.

"Someone on Gryffindor is going to start hexing people if the Ravenclaws don't give up the Quaffle, but that's entirely within the rules, folks," Finley noted as Lily rose past Wood's low Bludger and passed to Vale, who caught the Quaffle and swerved back to midfield to avoid the converging defense. "They've closed the gap to twenty now, and are imposing their style of play on the Gryffindors. It hasn't paid off on the scoreboard much, but it's keeping things from getting out of hand as we've seen in both of Gryffindor's previous two matches."

Lily blinked as a bronze number eight flashed by her. The ground _ooh_ ed as Chloe nosedived at the ground, Roxanne right behind her. Lily held her breath, pivoted back towards midfield to stay away from the Gryffindor defenders, watched the Seekers race, and completely missed her brother slip past Maisie and belt a Bludger straight at her with as much force as he could muster.

"Ah!"

She gasped as the ball struck her straight in her knee. Something popped and pain exploded up her leg. Lily struggled to hold on to her boom, dropping the Quaffle and wincing. Rose dove under her, snatching the Quaffle away, rocketing downfield and expertly evading Royce to score. Lily looked up, but James had moved on, clapping Rose's hand as they steered back to their half of the pitch.

"Lily!" Wayne said, flying up to her as she clenched her jaw and clutched her knee. "Shit, you're bleeding pretty bad."

She didn't want to look. James's Bludger had broken something, because she knew her knee wasn't supposed to have so many lumps – nor was there supposed to be a chunk of something hard sticking out of her skin, covered in blood that dripped off of her foot.

Vale rode up, looking concerned. "I gotta use a timeout," she said, looking towards Master Higgs. "It's alright, Lily. We'll get – "

She didn't get the chance to finish. Roxanne and Chloe blasted towards the Gryffindor goals, arms outstretched. She saw Roxanne make a move, swerve just in front of Chloe, and –

"She's got the Snitch!" Finley called, disappointment creeping into his voice. "Weasley grabs it for Gryffindor, and that's the match – two-eighty to one hundred, Gryffindor defeats Ravenclaw. That's their lowest margin of victory for the year, but in a hard-fought match…and the team's gathering at midfield – "

James and Rose landed, jumped off their brooms, and crashed into Roxanne at full force to sweep her up in a group hug. Lily's heart fell. Vale looked crushed, the first time Lily had ever seen her iron-forged captain show true disappointment, and Chloe had almost crashed into one sideline, tears streaming down her face as she knelt on the grass.

Wayne pulled at Lily's arm. "Let's get down, okay? Come on. You're messed up, you need Madame Longbottom to look at you. C'mon."

Lily shook her head and watched the Gryffindor celebration grow as all six other players mobbed Roxanne. "I don't want to."

"You are bleeding everywhere," Wayne protested. "Nothing we can do now about the game. It's over. Come on."

Slumping down on her broom and shuddering at the pain shooting through her leg, Lily dropped down to the turf and clung to Wayne for support as she let her broom drop to the ground. Her trusty Mach 6 looked so pathetic lying there, muddy, blood-splattered, and defeated in the dirt.

A voice called to her from the stands, a voice she didn't want to hear now of all times. "Lily!"

She looked up to see Harry and Ginny watching her, their faces fraught with concern. Both of them wore bright blue jackets over their red undershirts, and like Al, they hadn't stopped supporting her as James, Rose, and Roxanne flew for their house.

"I'm fine," Lily called to them weakly, wobbling on one leg as Wayne propped her up and Madame Longbottom trotted onto the field to attend to her. She laid her head on Wayne's shoulder and looked away, feeling tears prick her eyes as the Gryffindors jumped up and down at midfield, James right at the center of their mob, his face never brighter. "I'll make it."

* * *

The sting of defeat had a way of hanging around.

Lily moped through her next week even as her fellow Ravenclaws congratulated her and Wayne on a good game. They'd hamstrung Gryffindor's attack and had remained in it all the way until the end, unlike Hufflepuff and Slytherin's crushing defeats at the hands of the champs. It never felt enough to Lily, however, and she spent all too long at night staring out her window before going to bed, imagining what it must have been like to be in that screaming, dancing, celebrating mob of Gryffindors. She refused to talk to James or her cousins about it, refused to talk them at _all_ with the blow still fresh in her mind, and her thoughts turned on her as she replayed her scuffle with Rose and James's Bludger opening up her knee again and again and again.

Wayne hadn't forgotten, either – but he was thinking ahead. Two weeks later as April gave way to May he strategized about next season at breakfast, buttering his toast to scenarios where Ravenclaw could exact vengeance.

"They're done next year. This was their year," he said, despite Natalie and Logan's lack of interest and Lily's objective to avoid Quidditch until at least the fall. "Losing three players…yeah, it's Slytherin we gotta worry about next year. Marcellus is goddamn crazy at Seeker, and Chloe…well, she'll improve. Probably."

Lily rubbed her knee. Madame Longbottom had cleared up her injury with a few waves of her wand, but the psychological blow hurt a lot more. "Can we not talk about it until we have to practice again?" she mumbled.

"If you want to talk something else," Logan said, rustling the _Daily Prophet_ , "there's a nasty opinion piece in here about your aunt and other people 'stirring up trouble.'"

"What?" Lily said, moving to look at the paper.

A barn owl's arrival interrupted her. It swooped in low over the Ravenclaw table, dropping a thin, plain brown envelope in front of her before flying off, not even sticking around long enough to snatch a bite as it went. Frowning, Lily opened up the envelope and pulled out a thin piece of paper. It was plain, just parchment with no writing and no mention of where it had come from.

"What is that?" Natalie said. "Someone just thought you needed parchment?"

Lily flipped over the envelope. No return address. "The heck?"

She received her answer as soon as she spoke. Her first word drew lines of black ink from the parchment, words, sentences, all emerging out of thin air and lining the paper in a note in familiar handwriting – Hermione's.

 _Lily,_

 _I did more research into Declan Stennis after your last letter. You mentioned a while ago that he had a friend in the German Ministry – as it turns out, that man's been showing up to work less and less lately, until he stopped showing up at all three weeks ago. They sent people to his house to check on him and found his body in a trunk. He's been dead for more than a year, and the wizards who found him found traces of Polyjuice Potion in his home._

 _Someone was impersonating him, whether to spy or otherwise, and if they had contact with Stennis in that time, I wager they fooled him too._

 _The Ministry likes him a lot, so I can't do anything here. I'm going to come to Hogwarts when he arrives for one of his check-ups next Friday at seven. I already told the Headmaster, and he'll be there with me to ask him some questions._

 _I want you to come with us. You've given me some good leads on the man, and you might have solid testimony we need in case he rebuffs us. Nothing bad's going to happen to you. I just think you should have the chance to see things through after working hard on this._

 _Let me know,_

 _-Aunt Hermione_

 _P.S. Sorry about the secrecy with the ink – I just want to be careful._

Lily folded the paper in her hands and pursed her lips. Stennis said his German friend had sent him the pendant he wore around his neck, that gaudy piece of jewelry the man thought made him look so authoritative. Someone had done their homework on him, knew what he liked, and had used it for…for what?"

 _Gee. What strange things have happened at Hogwarts this year, Lily?_

She had a pretty good guess.


	45. The Void

_**Shout out to Charms and emanreus for the great reviews! Indeed it is contrived, emanreus, and that's because Hermione wasn't telling the whole truth (my characters have this issue with honesty often. Another casualty of writing from Lily's perspective.) That merges with the Christmas argument (hint, Ginny was right) in this chapter as Lily steps into the mentor-apprentice cycle. This is a story that's heavily about alliances in a world stuck in the gray, convoluted morality between good and evil, and Lily's a part of that. As for Logan – I hinted at who his mother was way back in the closing chapters of Book 1 (an established character from the original series), but I've left it at that since. Before I go in on his parents, I need to articulate the defining moment of his past – something that will begin to be revealed next chapter, along with some of the story behind Lily's friend group. His last name's Howe, for what it's worth. I haven't really brought that up more than a couple times, since Lily refers to most people (Maribor and Stennis notwithstanding) by their first names. Same with Natalie's surname Hightower, for instance.  
**_

 _ **Now we begin the finale of Book 2 as Lily pledges allegiance, Stennis squares off with Hermione and the Headmaster, and we return to a strange land with tourists in tow…**_

* * *

 _Next Friday at seven_.

Lily hadn't been quick enough to hide the letter's contents from her friends' probing eyes, but she was doing all in her power to keep them away from following her to meet up with Hermione.

"No, don't!" Lily exclaimed that evening after supper in the common room as Natalie expressed interest in coming along to see what Stennis would do. "Nat, it's not just for fun – it's something serious. I don't even know what's going to happen. I'm going alone."

Her friend looked disappointed. "But it's an adventure! I won't say anything. You won't even see me. I'll hide in the bushes and watch or something. Come on, Wayne thinks it sounds intriguing too. It's something different than doing our Potions homework."

"Nat, _please_ just stay here," Lily pleaded. She felt like she was fighting a losing battle against that spark in her friend's eyes. "I told you, I don't know what's going to happen. My aunt just wanted me to show up and I told her yes. Maybe all I do is watch some people talk and occasionally mumble things. Dammit, the _Headmaster's_ going to be there. It's not going to be crazy and fun. You don't even know the Ministry man!"

"No, but if he starts shooting curses at you all – "

She sighed out of exasperation. "That's _not_ going to happen. Please just don't try to follow me."

Natalie folded her arms and looked cross. Lily knew her friend wanted to get involved – she'd gotten a taste of what evils lurked out there during the Hogsmeade attack, she had just as much of a thirst for information and secrets as Lily did – if not more, given her occasional veering into conspiracy theorizing – and she had more than a good enough reason to get to the bottom of Sion and Genseric's moves, what with the blotchy scars still lining her neck and shoulders from their first year. She didn't know all the things Lily did, though, hadn't spoken with Stennis throughout the year, didn't have the insight into the Ministry that came from having so many family members working for the institution, and above all, she wouldn't violate Hermione's trust. _It's not an adventure, Nat. It's an obligation._

Besides, knowing Stennis as she did, all this would probably amount to a lot of hot air, some big words, and maybe a few angry faces and a threat or two from the Headmaster.

"Is your aunt coming here to get you, then?" Natalie asked, still looking sulky. "At least meeting her would be cool."

"No. I'm meeting her in the Entrance – " Lily stopped mid-sentence. _Oh, you_. "Nat!"

She threw up her hands. "I didn't say anything!"

"Don't follow me!"

"I didn't _say_ anything!"

Five minutes before seven, Lily tried to slip unnoticed out of the Ravenclaw common room. She got to the door right as Trent Thorpe was walking in, however, and he immediately said loud enough for everyone nearby to hear, "Hey, you're good at Astronomy, right Lily? Do you know that thing Vos gave us to do – "

"Later!" protested Lily, sliding past him. She took one last look behind her. Natalie eyed her, her homework suspiciously gathered up into one neat pile. From the other side of the room, Wayne and Logan watched as well.

 _Dammit, why can't I ever get my mail in private?!_

Abandoning any attempt to control what she couldn't, Lily hurried down the steps of Ravenclaw Tower. Out on the Grand Staircase students hustled up and down back to their common rooms, stragglers loitering from the end of supper or in the library heading towards Gryffindor Tower or down towards the kitchens and the dungeons for the evening. Lily had taken nothing but her wand with her. She slid past a trio of gossiping Gryffindor girls on the fifth-floor stairs, hopped a trick step on her way to the fourth floor, ignored a portrait of a stick-thin merman chiding her for "Heading down for seconds, you glutton," and bumped into two more people she didn't want to run into tonight on the third floor.

Al and Scorpius were in the midst of an argument. "You could just ignore her," Al said, looking bored. "If Rose is bugging you _that much_ – "

"Well if I say anything it just fuels her ego," Scorpius countered, looking hot under the collar. "She's bugging _all_ of us in the fifth year in my house. It's not our fault she thinks she's the greatest thing that ever happened to Britain."

"Then you all take it up with her in our next Defense class."

"I just said, she won't listen to _us_ , and neither does Professor Corner. Bet she listens to you, though. You're the levelheaded person in your family clan. I'd talk with Hugo, but apparently he and his sister aren't on great terms these days, and I saw _your_ sister nearly rip Rose's head off in Quidditch, so I doubt she's much help either. Hormones and girls and shite."

"I barely even talk to you in class, let alone outside of it, and sorry to say, Scorpius, but you…really don't have the greatest reputation in my house. Rose's going to laugh off the notion of –" Al paused when he saw Lily. "Well, this is awkward."

"Busy," said Lily, pushing by them. She didn't know what Scorpius wanted with Al – she didn't even know they talked – but she didn't have time to hear it out now.

Scorpius laughed as she passed by. "Exploring and getting detention again, Lily?"

"I'm busy!"

She shot past them and dashed down the second and first floor stairs, reaching the ground floor and ignoring a few looks her way from the last stragglers heading away from the Great Hall. Someone had left one of the great oaken castle doors ajar. Lily loitered beside them, unsure of what to do while she waited. A milky crescent moon hung overhead in the navy blue night sky rapidly fading to black. It was a bright evening – the stars twinkled like the distant suns they were, and the galaxy soared overhead in a great, brilliant white streak. Faint shadows crossed the ground, and the black outlines of birds soared through the unseasonably warm spring air.

Lily almost didn't notice the woman in black heading up to the door from the grounds, her footsteps so quiet she couldn't hear them.

It was Hermione. She'd taken care not to be noticed – she wore a hooded black tunic with the hood pulled over her head and just above her eyes, concealing her face in the dark. She looked like a phantom, not the opinionated public figure Lily knew but someone here on a mission and with a goal clearly in mind. Her wand poked out of her left sleeve, easily in reach.

Hermione pulled down her hood. "Lily? Are you all set?"

Lily was taken aback by her aunt's stealth appearance. "What's the…why all the secrecy? What's going to happen?"

Hermione ushered her out the door and onto the dark grounds, away from any prying eyes. She looked around and said, "Look, I didn't actually ask you here because I needed you to say anything tonight to me or your Headmaster or Declan Stennis. You've been giving me good information all year and I want to let you see it through. Your Headmaster and I think Stennis is hiding something, from us, from even the Ministry, that he's not exactly here to keep records on Hogwarts after all, not after what I found out about that German friend you referred me to. Now, if you don't want to see what happens – you don't have to get involved. But I think you want to know about what's going on, and I won't keep you from that. You're old enough to make your own decisions, you've been a big help, and I won't hold you back."

"No, I want to come!" Lily said immediately.

A little part of her brain held her back. A conversation from some time ago rose in her brain – she heard Ginny accusing Hermione of _molding_ her kids, and of going behind her and Harry's back, like she wanted someone to learn and follow in her footsteps as she campaigned against the Ministry's recent changes. Here was Hermione now, basically admitting to that exact thing to Lily's face – and Lily was eager to dive deeper into the rabbit hole.

This was about trust at the heart of it, Lily thought. Harry and Ginny wanted to protect her and keep her safe. She saw their expressions when she was hurt in Quidditch. She knew how she was always the baby of the family. Then along came Hermione, opening up and trusting in her to hold her own in a situation far more serious than the day-to-day life of a fourteen year-old third-year at Hogwarts. Maribor seemed to trust Hermione. Alanis Fell begrudgingly gave her credit even if she disagreed with her methods, and even Professor Vos didn't have a bad word to say about her. How could Lily say no, especially when she knew she needed as much knowledge and experience as she could in the face of the evils lurking in the darkness?

Hermione nodded, her expression stoic, but there was a glow of pride in her eyes. "Promise me one thing, then. Keep everything that happens from here on until we're done tonight secret. No telling. Got it?"

Lily gulped. She hoped like hell that Natalie wasn't following her down here. "Got it. Secret."

"Good, because your Headmaster's probably going to break a few laws," Hermione said, looking deeply into Lily's eyes and squeezing her shoulder. "He's going to meet us down by the gates. Come on."

Lily thought she saw something move by the castle doors, but she said nothing. _Shouldn't somebody close those?_

Too late now.

Hermione walked slowly and quietly down the castle walk, staying in the dark so that she was almost invisible to Lily. Down near the entrance to the school, a man walked up towards Hogwarts – not the muscular figure of Maribor, but the portly, pudgy Stennis. Hermione motioned for Lily to stick behind her, but she didn't manage to approach before another man intercepted Stennis on the walk.

Lily heard the Headmaster's gravelly growl before she could make out his face. "You're a persistent man," Maribor said, standing in the middle of the walk like a barricade. He wasn't dressed in his usual Headmaster robes but in a thick, fitted vest and trousers, both made out of green, shiny leather – _dragon skin_. It was like he expected a fight. "All these accounting visits and you haven't figured out how to shave a Galleon from my castle yet? Maybe eliminate the student body?"

"Ah, John! I was not aware you were coming to escort me in from the gates now – is that your latest security initiative?" Stennis asked, his typically pompous tone inflected with a dose of confrontation. "I see no Auror on duty by the gate."

"I had Dean Thomas patrol the forest edge tonight. If you're implying that I should have had him keep an eye out for you, perhaps you have something right for once."

Hermione shuffled in the dark. Lily heard her pull out her wand and saw her aim it out at the grounds before whispering, " _Muffliato_."

Stennis didn't hear her. He sized up Maribor and scoffed, "Nothing of the sort; it seems merely a lapse – "

Hermione motioned for Lily to stay down as she broke from the shadows to sidle up to Maribor. "The only lapse is in the Ministry's trust in you. A dozen visits and the only recommendation around Hogwarts's future came after the Hogsmeade attack, telling _me_ that you haven't been doing your job very well – or you've been doing a different one this whole time. What are you up to here, Stennis?"

The Ministry official stepped back, taken by surprise at Hermione's sudden arrival, but he recovered quickly. "Mrs. Weasley. I see John is allowing anyone on campus now, even dissidents. Another security lapse. I'm here to chronicle such things. No more. The Ministry's trying to _protect_ students, not put them in the line of fire like happened two years ago and then again at Hogsmeade. If anyone is doing their job here, it is _me_."

Some dark shade moved in Lily's peripheral vision. She glanced back towards the castle and spotted something shuffle far up the walk on the hill overlooking the gates, too far for Stennis, Hermione, or Maribor to see unless they paid close attention, but Lily guessed people were watching. _Shite._

She started to stand up and call out a warning, but Maribor's hand twitched, as if he intended to go for his wand. "Hardly," Hermione told Stennis. "Interrogating students? That has nothing to do with saving money. It sounds like you're trying to do a lot more interfering at Hogwarts, and I was here the last time the Ministry did that, when Dolores Umbridge ran roughshod over the school with Cornelius Fudge's blessing. I'm a member of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. I'm not asking anything of you. I'm _telling_ you to tell me the truth of what you're doing."

Stennis puffed out his chest. "Is that a threat, Weasley?"

"A promise," Maribor growled. "She's law enforcement, and this is my castle. Our authority supersedes yours."

"I am not required to tell you anything more than status updates. I will tell you no more. Both of you are committing a crime threatening me. You lay your hands on me and you will both be on the street by tomorrow morning," Stennis warned.

Maribor snorted: "I don't need to lay my hands on you. I've jeopardized my school's security this whole year to let you in on the Ministry's whims. I won't do so anymore."

"Then take your school. I'm reporting back – "

"You'll report nothing, parasite. If you won't say, I'll take it from you. Hermione might be above that, but I am not. _Legilimens!_ "

Maribor flashed his wand before Stennis could grab his in time. Rather than reach into the man's mind, however, the Headmaster's spell produced a flash of light as Stennis's pendant glowed bright yellow, the decorative sun flaring under the moon high above. Maribor stepped back, clearly not expecting that, when Stennis's pendant constricted around the Ministry man's neck. He gasped, choking, reaching out towards Maribor and Hermione as he slumped to the ground, yanking at the chain that wouldn't let go.

Lily panicked. She jumped up from her crouching spot in the shadows, pulling her wand as Hermione pulled hers. " _Diffindo!_ " cried Hermione, aiming at the pendant. The spell did nothing but make the sun glow brighter.

From its flares came darkness. Lily made out a smoky black cloud hissing out of the pendant, rising above Stennis's writhing body and forming together in the light of the moon and stars. Thin and wiry with beady, glowing yellow eyes embedded somewhere in the shadowy, half-human, half-amoeba form, it was the phantasm as Lily had seen it in Hogwarts's halls. She rushed out with her wand as Maribor aimed to fire a spell at it.

He didn't get the chance. The specter threw an arm – appendage, whatever the shadow had – at the three of them as she ran forward. For a brief moment Lily saw a flash of gray and a green, glowing ring with black ribbons running towards a singularity, and then a blast of white light enveloped her. Her head buzzed and her ears rang, and she doubled over, clutching her temples and trying to get the pain to stop. When she looked up, she gasped.

Shades of Hogwarts past moved all around her, a thousand, ten thousand ghostly images of wizards and witches through history retracing their every action. A green-black sky boiled overhead, and back behind her, Hogwarts castle throbbed, its walls vibrating, subtle at this distance, but Lily knew chaos would reign inside the corridors. A skull with a snake for a tongue constantly formed, disappeared, and re-formed in the billowing clouds overhead, and the sound of wailing, laughing, shrieking, talking, and every other utterance known to man pounded her ears, the sound of viewing all of Hogwarts's history as time unraveled.

Then there was the smell…that familiar smell, that awful smell…

Lily saw Maribor and Hermione getting to their feet, their eyes clenched shut as they tried to make sense of the world around them. Stennis's still body lay on the ground, twitching, going still, and twitching again in endless repetition.

Only one other thing felt real about this world, the Hogwarts out of time that Lily had seen back in the winter. A scaled, gray-white demon with four arms and a head ringed with yellow eyes floated in the air between her and the castle. It wasn't the phantasm that had run from her before attacking the last time, but more confident, bolder, looming large as if daring her to attack it.

"What is this?" Hermione groaned, gritting her teeth and pointing her wand at the phantasm. "What is that?"

Maribor glanced at Stennis's flailing form. It's not Stennis, then," he breathed. "Someone has used him. Mistake bringing Ms. Potter along, Hermione. Lily, you stay behind – "

He didn't finish. The phantasm leered at Lily, raising one of its grotesque, multi-jointed arms and pointing straight at her. She'd taken it more as a beast than a thinking creature the last time she'd run into it, guided by instinct alone, but now it seemed smarter, more capable, and most chillingly, able to speak.

When it spoke, its voice was black, baritone, taunting from every direction and within Lily's mind all at once. " _You_ ," it boomed, " _you return. So be it. You surprised me the last time, but I am ready now. This is my castle, not yours. Come live in my world and lose yourself in your mind."_

Lily grimaced. The voice was more than just a pounding bass drum thrumming in her mind – every word felt like a jackhammer inside her head.

The others must have heard. Hermione shot Lily a confused look. Maribor swung his wand at the phantasm, shooting a flash of red light, but the creature veered away and flew off towards the chaos Hogwarts, leaving the three of them to follow or stay behind out here as the ground convulsed and the sky bubbled. Beyond the gates behind Lily loomed a wide, green-gray expanse of nothingness, a void unbound not only in time but also seemingly in space. The phantasm – and whoever controlled it, who Lily had a good guess about – clearly only had Hogwarts in mind. She didn't want to imagine leaving the confines of the grounds of this place.

Hermione and Maribor were handling the sudden shift well – if either were afraid, neither showed it. "What did it mean?" Hermione said, turning on Lily. "That thing was talking to you!"

Lily swallowed hard. "We have to go after it," she whimpered. _Ignite its remains_ , Bacchus had said. _That will open a portal back._ She had no reason to trust the enigmatic man she'd seen only twice, but she had no other recourse. "I've seen it before."

Hermione opened her mouth to protest, but Maribor cut her off. "That's the beast Jurre mentioned last term? He told me of your story, and now I even believe it," he said, eying Lily. He put the pieces together without her saying a word. "Someone used Stennis as a ferry then. And this…well hell, I don't know what this place is. Fine. Lily, it called you out. If you have a history with that monster, you lead.

She gulped. She hadn't been prepared to dive is world again, certainly not with the Headmaster and Hermione in tow. Lily took a step forward just as a light flashed behind her and something heavy and grunting hit the ground.

Lily turned and groaned. _I told you not to follow me!_

A white light flashed and Natalie tumbled to the ground. Logan appeared right after her, and it seemed like a whole convoy had snuck behind her to watch her dealings with Stennis – Wayne too, and then, far more unexpectedly, Al and Scorpius. _The hell, Nat, you told them I was doing something?! Why couldn't you leave well enough alone and listen when I said to stay in the common room?_

Natalie gritted her teeth, looked around, and shrieked in terror at the chaotic version of Hogwarts. Wayne clutched his ears to drive out the sound of thousands of past visitors and attendants moving, talking, and acting all at once, and Al and Scorpius doubled over, their eyes clamped shut at the sight. Only Logan stood up, shaking his head, clenching his jaw, and exhaling sharply, as if stepping out of time was no worse than getting ready for a particularly difficult exam. _Then again, the stuff he's seen with me…_

Hermione had her wand out, backing away from the other kids slowly. "Albus?" she said, trying to figure out how her nephew had appeared out of thin air. "What?"

"Projections," spat Maribor, aiming his wand. "They're images that monster brought up. Nothing more."

"No, no, no, wait!" Logan pled, holding up his hands. "I'm real, we're real, swear to Merlin! What the hell is this?"

The Headmaster didn't look convinced. "There was nobody near us. Just us four. How did you get here?"

Logan took a deep breath. Behind him Scorpius struggled to his feet, trying to make sense of a place lacking in just that. Wayne held on to Natalie as she keeled over and heaved, and Al looked dazed. "Nat – our friend – she said something was going on outside, so we….we watched, and kind of followed Lily…I mean, Nat, Wayne and I are friends with Lily, her brother and the Malfoy guy just kind of tagged along after Nat said Lily was doing something…we saw some people meeting but couldn't hear anything. Then we saw some kind of ring, portal thing open up and everyone disappeared, so we ran closer to try and help, then it…it swallowed us up just now and…and…"

Al pulled himself together enough to admit, "I did it. I saw Lily disappear and…I just ran, I didn't think, and they followed…"

Hermione shot Lily a look that screamed, _you told someone what you were doing?_ "Why did you follow me?" Lily asked, feeling miserable. This was getting worse by the moment. "I said not to!"

"We thought you were going to be in trouble!" cried Natalie. "And we're not wrong, look at this nightmare – "

Maribor looked peeved. "Fine heroics."

Scorpius stood up, getting over the shock of this place long enough to say, "Sir we thought something bad was going down, really – "

"Well you're not _wrong_ ," Maribor spat. "Alright. If you're here, make yourselves useful. I don't care how old you are. I don't run this school so you all can break down into crying messes the first time something goes wrong."

Hermione had composed herself enough by now to ask, "Lily, that creature picked you out. Is this all familiar? This place?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

"You should have told someone! We could have made a plan – "

"I did! I told Professor Vos, but who else would believe me?"

Maribor cut them off. "Enough. What does that thing want and how do we get out?"

Lily shook her head. "I don't know what it wants exactly. But…there was a portal…last time…one in here, like those ones in Hogsmeade, and I stepped through and ended up – "

"That's a start," interrupted the Headmaster. "Waiting around here's not going to do us any good. Good lord, you lot, pull yourselves together. I don't think throwing you in detention for being gallant morons will do a lot of good right now. I'm better off as an ex-Auror than a Headmaster in this mess."

"You all stay together," Hermione added to Lily and the others. "You six don't split up no matter what, alright?"

Al and Scorpius exchanged glances. Natalie was barely keeping it together, with Wayne supporting her with one arm. Logan clenched his wand, looking like the determined kid Lily remembered from two years ago down in the lower dungeons. Well, now they were all in on this horrible game.

Far ahead the phantasm loomed, floating off towards its terrible phantom Hogwarts and whatever it had prepared for them inside.


End file.
